Last winter, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman went on a whirlwind tour of the Far East, meeting with influential executives from companies such as TSMC, Samsung and SK hynix. However, we do not think that he did not make the best impression on the hosts by presenting his bold plans. According to the report published in New York Times this week, senior TSMC executives allegedly called the head of OpenAI a “podcasting bro” after meetings. The NYT says it discussed OpenAI negotiations with nine people who were close to the discussions but wished to remain anonymous.
Altman used his multi-stop trip to outline his plans for advancing artificial intelligence, spanning Asian manufacturing forces, Middle Eastern money and U.S. regulators. NYT sources say that the scale of investment will be estimated at trillions of dollars – equivalent to a quarter of annual production in the US. However, the latest announcements regarding OpenAI have pushed such talk back to “merely” hundreds of billions… Years of construction would also be required to meet OpenAI’s computational scaling plans, according to reports.
Moon dreams fall to earth at TSMC
OpenAI’s CEO is known for his ambition. Perhaps Altman is right to place enormous confidence in his vision and moonshot plans after it took him just a few years to become one of the most influential names in the tech industry. Nevertheless, his plans allegedly failed to inspire confidence among hardline TSMC executives.
The NYT report claims that during Altman’s visit to Taiwan, he told TSMC executives that he anticipated a $7 trillion investment in a few years. The result would be 36 modern semiconductor factories and data centers fueling the development of artificial intelligence. TSMC executives allegedly found Altman’s ideas absurd, and according to one NYT source, chipmaking executives then called Altman a “podcasting bro.” They say even implementing a fraction of OpenAI’s CEO’s ideas would be extremely risky, executives have openly wondered.
This dismissive approach to OpenAI’s ambitions coincides with a report we published this summer. During TSMC’s 2024 annual shareholders’ meeting, it was cited that newly elected chairman Dr. CC Wei had made several controversial statements. Wei, the CEO of OpenAI, was quoted as saying, “Sam Altman, he’s too aggressive, too aggressive for me to believe it.”
Around the same time, Altman also visited South Korea to talk to senior representatives from Samsung and SK hynix. However, the NYT points out that the negotiations were interrupted for national security reasons, as countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had relations with China at the time.
The situation may be different now for technology plans involving the United Arab Emirates, as earlier this week President Biden and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the president of the Emirates, met at the White House and instructed their senior officials to develop a memorandum detailing future cooperation in in the field of artificial intelligence. Earlier this week, we reported on the latest rumors regarding TSMC and Samsung megafactories in the United Arab Emirates.
The NYT highlights great uncertainty about OpenAI’s extremely ambitious plans. Details about who will contribute what and what they will gain from their investments remain unclear. However, companies such as technology investment specialist Emirates MGX and home tech titans such as Microsoft, Nvidia and Apple are still in talks with OpenAI.
Artificial intelligence is still a treasure trove without a killer app
OpenAI’s business model in its current form does not inspire confidence because it seems to be based on the promise of “tomorrow jams.” Specifically, the company has revenue of about $3 billion a year, but that overshadows its annual expenses of $7 billion.
Altman’s grand plan seems to stem from his theory that artificial intelligence will be like electricity. As AI becomes easier, people will find more and better ways to exploit it. However, as of this writing, leading tech companies like have been unable to find the killer application for artificial intelligence. Microsoft’s Copilot gaffes and delays are well documented. Similarly, Apple released the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro earlier this month with a lot of talk about Apple Intelligence, but the first of these AI features won’t be available on the modern devices until next month.
