OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is in talks with investors, including from the United Arab Emirates, to raise between $5 trillion to $7 trillion in funding. The goal, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, is to increase the world’s chip manufacturing capacity and enhance AI capabilities.
The fundraising efforts are part of a broader strategy to address OpenAI’s growth constraints, particularly the scarcity of AI chips needed for training large language models like ChatGPT.
Altman’s proposal is said to include forming a partnership with investors, chip manufacturers, and power providers to finance the construction of chip foundries, which would then be operated by the chip manufacturers.
Since the recent call for fusion energy from an AI company, I wonder if eventually there will be competition for energy. Will there be a point where it is more “cost efficient” (for some) to farm solar energy instead of food, because AI will be more productive per m² than most people? It could appear easier to control, too.
Maybe you could argue that this is already the case, except that most people don’t feel it yet, because AI isn’t very efficient yet and most resources so far, are only spent in expectation of future results.
People figured out already this is a “why not both” situation. It’s called agrivoltaics what means putting solar panels in a field with crops or animals. A lot of plants benefit from some shade, certainly with climate change and heat waves doing their thing. Other do have a bit lower yield, but having dual income from the land more than makes up for that.