OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes that there will be a major shortage of AI chips in the coming future.
Therefore, OpenAI CEO aims to build a series of semiconductor plants to drive across the next semiconductor wave. As reported by Bloomberg News the 38-year old CEO is envisioning to set up a network of factories to manufacture semiconductors and explore the potential AI chips.
Altman is also known to be in talks with several large potential investors to develop an ecosystem for AI chips.
The OpenAI flamboyant veteran is in search of a major ‘money-bank’ for setting up chip fabrication plants.
According to various reports, the project is to create a chain of semiconductor plants and fabs and work closely with top semiconductor manufacturers.
Manufacturing semiconductors is an expensive affair, it needs a lot of natural resources as well as funds.
With major transformations taking over the semiconductor industry, AI chips are the next big thing expected to traverse across the chip industry.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies are paving the way across the new chip manufacturing which is a stringent strive to cater for the changing market dynamics.
Abu Dhabi-based G42 and Japan’s SoftBank Group are among the firms that have held discussions with the OpenAI Sam Altman. But it is known to be at a very early stage as full list of involved partners and funders has not been established, the report said.
The talks with G42, with which the ChatGPT maker partnered in October last year, alone had focused on raising $8 billion to $10 billion, although the current status of the discussions is unclear, according to the report.
Intel, Taiwanese chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Samsung Electronics are potential partners for OpenAI, the report added.
Sam Altman returned to OpenAI in November after a surprise since then having been making key decisions to drive the next AI wave.
The Bloomberg report said he had been hard at work on the chips project until he was temporarily ousted and upon his return, he rekindled the efforts.
Among the top people, Sam Altman has already had a series of meetings with UAE’s Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and Softbank.
Notably, Sheikh Tahnoon is the brother of UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan and also serves as national security advisor, according to the Financial Times. Tahoon also oversees some of the country’s most powerful investment funds.
The Financial Times report notes that it’s not yet clear whether the new company will be a subsidiary of OpenAI or a separate entity. However, citing two people with knowledge of the matter, the report noted that OpenAI will be the first client of the new company.
What Are AI Chips?
“AI chips” are the new form of how semiconductor chips are developed more intuitive, smarter and more cognitive. Though manufacturing AI chips at a mass-scale can be a costly affair. Also with fewer regulations and design complexities, AI chips are the next straining bid for chip manufacturers. AI chips include graphics processing units (GPUs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that are specialized for AI. General-purpose chips like central processing units (CPUs) can also be used for some simpler AI tasks. State-of-the-art AI chips are essential for developing cost-effective, quick innovations and deployment of advanced security-relevant AI systems.
State-of-the-art AI chips are necessary for the cost-effective, fast development and deployment of advanced security-relevant AI systems.
AI Market – The Next Hotfield
According to the latest report by Precedence Research, the AI market as a whole will grow from $87 billion in 2021 to more than $1.6 trillion by 2030. That includes data centers as well as edge devices, but the pace of growth is significant. Infact, AI is such a hot field today that almost every major tech company is investing in or making AI chips. They include Apple, AMD, Arm, Baidu, Google, Graphcore, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Meta, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Samsung and TSMC. The list goes on and on.
