News OpenAI's Sam Altman raises billions to build chip empire: Report

[Admin]

Chief executive of OpenAI raises funds to build fabs to make in-house designed chips.

OpenAI's Sam Altman raises billions to build chip empire: Report : Read more

 

[bit_user]

I don't seriously doubt that Altman is doing this entirely of his own accord, but you might expect one of the first things an AI superintelligence would do is to seize the means of production to augment & clone itself. Now, let's just see where these factories are going to be built.

Another possibility - and I recognize I'm going way out on a limb, here - is that he might be trying to do an end-run around sanctions being imposed by the US and EU. However, if he did start moving in that direction, I'd guess his access to supplies and support from ASML would get cut off and I don't expect his funding levels or timescale would enable him to avoid depending on them like everyone else at the cutting edge of semiconductor fabrication.

The last fancy in which I'll indulge is probably the most plausible - that he thinks he can harness AI to substitute some amount of the human expertise he needs, in order to get this whole operation off the ground. Otherwise, the obvious question would be why/how he thinks he can succeed in such an ambitious undertaking that has stymied even the mighty Intel (and more recently, Samsung - to a lesser, extent).

 

[AgentBirdnest]

The last fancy in which I'll indulge is probably the most plausible - that he thinks he can harness AI to substitute some amount of the human expertise he needs, in order to get this whole operation off the ground. Otherwise, the obvious question would be why/how he thinks he can succeed in such an ambitious undertaking that has stymied even the mighty Intel (and more recently, Samsung - to a lesser, extent).

Ah, that's a good theory. I can't imagine how else he'd expect to take on the big three "in the coming years", starting from scratch.

My memory isn't too great, but I seem to recall reading on TH at some point in the past year -- that Nvidia uses AI to help them design their next AI chips. Which feels like an uncomfortably close step toward the technological singularity...

 

[usertests]

Nothing says "AI bubble" quite like raising tens of billions of dollars to build out your own dedicated AI fabs.

Maybe it can work, but IDK man. It would be nice to have additional capacity, and we could eventually see bottomless demand for crazy 3D neuromorphic chips to run "AI".

 

[DavidC1]

Ah, that's a good theory. I can't imagine how else he'd expect to take on the big three "in the coming years", starting from scratch.

Because that's what people do. Jump in on the new fad. Just because Altman got good doing this doesn't mean he's good elsewhere. There's such thing as hubris you know?

Nothing says "AI bubble" quite like raising tens of billions of dollars to build out your own dedicated AI fabs.

Maybe it can work, but IDK man. It would be nice to have additional capacity, and we could eventually see bottomless demand for crazy 3D neuromorphic chips to run "AI".

Ahh, and the crash will be glorious.

 

[thestryker]

ASML makes this entire endeavor very suspect. Even licensing most of what's required for a leading edge node doesn't get you a finished product. I'm just not sure what the grift is here.

 

[Blastomonas]

If this is successful, then I assume that this would free up capacity of the big fabs. This should be a good thing for those of us wanting cpus and gpus.

Perhaps over simplistic.

 

[jp7189]

If money alone could build leading edge fabs, then China would have done that years ago. Make no mistake, to get the horse power/efficiency to run today's AI, you need leading edge.

I can't read the original Bloomberg article behind their wall, but is it possible the rumored "network of fabs" is more likely to be a partnership with existing foundries to build out additional capacity for AI focused endeavors? That would make a whole lot more sense than Altman spinning up something from scratch.

 

[brandonjclark]

Is it just me or does anyone else think there is something NOT cool about this guy?

Maybe it's based on just a feeling, but I don't like him.

 

[Notton]

ASML makes this entire endeavor very suspect. Even licensing most of what's required for a leading edge node doesn't get you a finished product. I'm just not sure what the grift is here.

I think it would be the classic "Investment Fraud" or "Ponzi scheme".
If you ask me, this looks exactly like the run-up to the Bre-X gold scandal.

At least it shouldn't take too long to see how real this is. It takes 3~5 years to build a semiconductor fab.

 

[bit_user]

is it possible the rumored "network of fabs" is more likely to be a partnership with existing foundries to build out additional capacity for AI focused endeavors? That would make a whole lot more sense than Altman spinning up something from scratch.

That wouldn't explain why they need so much investment or chime with pretty much anything else in the Toms article.

Don't worry about lack of details, though. If this plan continues to move forward, I'm sure we'll be hearing much more about it.

 

[bit_user]

Is it just me or does anyone else think there is something NOT cool about this guy?

Maybe it's based on just a feeling, but I don't like him.

Based on my superficial understanding, OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit endeaver. After a while of that, Altman was brought it to fix its financial situation and head up for-profit activities, within the company. As such, I expect he's very much about the business side of things. That's not inherently bad, but knowing his angle might lend a little more insight into his actions.

Perhaps he's looking at how to continue increasing OpenAI's value proposition, and feels that being deeply vertically-integrated is the best way to continue growing the company's value. He might be looking at the competition and worrying about OpenAI's leadership stance, as long as it continues to be just a software company. Maybe he feels they need the edge of having better-customized hardware, in order to maintain their competitive lead.

 

[bit_user]

It takes 3~5 years to build a semiconductor fab.

That's if you've already done the R&D work to design the nodes you're fabbing. R&D on new nodes can take the better part of a decade, if you're starting from scratch, and that assumes a fully-staffed R&D organization with all the necessary expertise already in place.

They could probably cut that time by a lot, if they can license most of the IP needed. However, I seriously doubt anyone is both able & willing to license them the IP for the kinds of cutting edge nodes he needs. IMO, they're thinking AI can makeup the difference, here.

 

[George³]

That's if you've already done the R&D work to design the nodes you're fabbing. R&D on new nodes can take the better part of a decade, if you're starting from scratch, and that assumes a fully-staffed R&D organization with all the necessary expertise already in place.

They could probably cut that time by a lot, if they can license most of the IP needed. However, I seriously doubt anyone is both able & willing to license them the IP for the kinds of cutting edge nodes he needs. IMO, they're thinking AI can makeup the difference, here.

What if he used his gpt-5, whose initial training was almost complete, to replace the whole crowd of experts and cut their decade of effort down to a few hours of supercomputer time. Of course, just properly formulating the tasks before they are set for solving can take several days.

 

[bit_user]

What if he used his gpt-5, whose initial training was almost complete, to replace the whole crowd of experts and cut their decade of effort down to a few hours of supercomputer time. Of course, just properly formulating the tasks before they are set for solving can take several days.

I suspect he has such notions, but it's not going to be a few hours of supercomputer time. It's more like the AI will help them narrow their search space of experiments to try. You'd still need experts, but they probably hope not as many and that it won't take them as long as an "unaided" team.