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Sam Altman: AI chips need big funding
US startup OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has decided to expand its activities. It plans to produce its own AI chips and is looking for wealthy investors. The company’s goal is ambitious – to raise US$7 billion in funding.
OpenAI director Sam Altman is already in talks to raise funds. He sees the UAE government and local businessmen as key partners in the project. According to Altman, they share his vision for advancing artificial intelligence. In addition, the Arab country is actively supporting AI startups through sovereign funds and attracting promising developers.
The modern AI sector is facing a serious problem that is limiting its development, says the head of OpenAI. This is the shortage of chips for training artificial intelligence models. The field requires large quantities of powerful processors, and the price is constantly rising. As a result, many start-ups are unable to deploy model training on a large scale and achieve high results.
Experts say OpenAI’s plans are almost unrealistic. For comparison:
- this is more than the combined market capitalisation of the three largest technology companies;
- Europe’s two largest economies, Germany and the UK, have less than the expected investment;
- US$7 trillion is 45 times the cost of building the ISS.
In addition, even at the government level, countries are allocating more modest sums to developing the sector. In the US, for example, the stimulus package for the chip industry amounts to US$52 billion.
Overview of the start-up’s performance
As for the performance of the OpenAI startup itself, it is showing good momentum:
- in December 2023, the estimated annual revenue was US$2 billion;
- in October, the figure was US$1.3 billion;
- revenues projected to more than double by 2025.
The company’s increased profitability is largely due to the success of its product. OpenAI launched the ChatGPT chatbot at the end of 2022. It is a generative artificial intelligence capable of extending dialogue and drawing conclusions.
OpenAI started as a non-profit artificial intelligence research project in 2015. In 2020, the startup launched a business unit that will allow it to make money from its own products. It has every chance of becoming one of Silicon Valley’s leading companies in the next 10 years, claims The FT.
AI sector outlook
Precedence Research estimates that the value of the AI industry will reach US$135 billion by 2030. The sector is growing rapidly, and many countries are vying to be at the forefront of developments. China, the US, Japan, Germany and others are introducing incentives to increase chip production. The provision of semiconductors will accelerate the creation of advanced models, expanding the nation’s independence and competitiveness.