Why does Altman have so much money?

We’ve known about Altman’s initiative for a while. associated with it to completely “reshape” the global chip market, thereby giving a new impetus to the development of artificial intelligence. When OpenAI’s executive was suddenly fired last year, one possible reason was that he began devoting too little time to the security of its technology. Instead, he tried to achieve a super-intelligent, universal AI and was distracted by plans to enter the market for microprocessors designed specifically for AI work. A few weeks before he was fired, Bloomberg reported that he was “raising funds in the Middle East” for a “new chip startup.” He may also have done a lot of things secretly from the company’s board of directors.

Altman has complained about “severe” chip shortages in the past. As the Wall Street Journal reports, in a bid to raise $7 trillion to create AI hardware, Altman is trying to attract investors, including the government of the United Arab Emirates. The latter is known for its investments in the Western economy. For example, before Twitter was acquired by Elon Musk, some of the company’s shares belonged to the UAE.

WSJ sources say Altman has met with several influential people, including UAE Sheikh Tanun bin Zayed al Nahyan, a top security official and brother of the country’s president.

huge scale

Altman’s goal is reportedly to establish a new chip manufacturing company to increase both the quantity and quality of products produced. It aims to reach new levels of power to better train and support artificial intelligence. It could potentially replace the current industry leader, NVIDIA. This desire does not seem surprising at all, considering that OpenAI is trying to maintain a leadership position in the market and create a powerful universal artificial intelligence that can perform many different tasks based on a single model and at the same time do it better than others. A person.

To put that incredible figure of seven trillion dollars into perspective, here’s a comparison: Global chip sales last year barely topped half a trillion. Sales of microcircuits designed for artificial intelligence amount to approximately $100 billion. It is difficult to imagine what scale this future enterprise will be and how much profit the factory network will make with such investments. According to the report, Altman told representatives of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Taiwan’s largest chip manufacturer, Dozens of factories to produce microchips in a few years, to meet the world’s growing needs for AI hardware. Perhaps this will include not only processors but also other equipment.

The media also writes this Altman hopes to build chip manufacturing facilities in the US. On the one hand, this could make it easier for him to raise money, as the Biden administration and Congress have lately been interested in supporting their own semiconductor industries. In order not to depend on the changing situation in Taiwan or elsewhere in the world, they are allocating billions of dollars to expand production, especially on US territory. Experts, on the other hand, are skeptical that it can fully do so, as there may be a shortage of skilled labor in the field and American politicians increasingly concerned that foreign governments like the UAE will profit too much. It gains power over the artificial intelligence market with its investments.