news

highlights:

1. altman still plans to build data centers and chip manufacturing plants around the world, with a total cost of up to us$7 trillion.

2. in addition to talks with the united arab emirates, asian chipmakers and u.s. officials, altman has begun selling his grand plan to european and canadian investors.

3. tsmc disdains ultraman's $7 trillion investment plan, believing the idea is too ridiculous and unwilling to take the plunge.

4. ultraman is preparing to build super data centers in japan, germany, and the united states. the size of a single seat is 20 times the current largest data center.

according to media reports on september 27, openai ceo sam altman made a whirlwind visit to east asia last winter and met with leaders from companies including tsmc, samsung electronics, and sk hynix. upper management, but he didn't make the best first impression. senior tsmc executives reportedly described altman as a "podcasting bro" after the meeting because he proposed building 36 new chip manufacturing plants. the ridiculous requirements for the factory cost a staggering $7 trillion.

ultraman used his travels to many places to promote hisaithe plan involves chip foundries in asia, funds in the middle east and regulatory agencies in the united states. it is reported that the scale of investment planned by altman will reach trillions of dollars-nearly a quarter of the annual gross domestic product of the united states. however, the latestOpenAIthe statement has revised the investment to hundreds of billions of dollars. in addition to the huge amount of money, it will take many years of construction to meet openai's computing power expansion plan. liz bourgeois, a spokesperson for openai, said: "we are not and have never considered a multi-trillion dollar project. while the full construction of global artificial intelligence infrastructure will likely take decades, a total of trillions of dollars, but openai is specifically exploring hundreds of billions of dollars.”

ridiculous dream of shooting the moon

ultraman is known for his grand ambitions. in just a few years, he has become one of the most influential figures in the global technology community. this overconfidence may be the reason why he comes up with all kinds of daring "shoot for the moon" plans. still, he didn't seem to inspire confidence in tsmc's savvy executives.

it is reported that altman revealed his idea to tsmc executives during his visit to taiwan, china, to invest us$7 trillion in the next few years. the investment will be used to build 36 new semiconductor factories and data centers to promote the development of artificial intelligence. however, tsmc executives believe that altman's idea is completely unrealistic. according to people familiar with the matter, tsmc executives thought altman's idea was so ridiculous that they even nicknamed him a "podcast brother" and believed that implementing even a small part of his idea would be an extremely risky move.

this dismissive attitude towards openai’s ambitions is consistent with a media report this summer. at tsmc’s 2024 annual shareholder meeting, newly elected chairman wei zhejia made some controversial speeches. in his speech at the time, wei zhejia once said when talking about ultraman: "ultraman is too radical, too radical for me, so that i can't believe his ambition." in addition to visiting taiwan, china, ultraman also visited korea, around the same time assamsung electronicshad a meeting with senior representatives of sk hynix.

tsmc spokesman will moss said the company is open to discussions about expanding semiconductor development but is currently focusing on its current global expansion projects and has "no new investment plans to disclose at this time." ”

want to build data centers around the world

in addition to talks with the united arab emirates, asian chipmakers and u.s. officials to expand the computing power needed to build artificial intelligence, altman is also looking to expand into europe and canada. according to altman's plan, they should join forces and invest trillions of dollars to build new computer chip factories and data centers around the world. according to people familiar with the matter, openai’s future technology blueprint will create countless data centers, provide a global computing power library, and strive to build the next generation of artificial intelligence.

altman's original plan was to have the uae finance the construction of multiple chip manufacturing plants, which could cost up to $43 billion each. the plan will reduce chip manufacturing costs for companies such as tsmc. people familiar with the matter revealed that altman privately compared the world's data centers to electricity. as electricity became more popular, people found better ways to use it. altman hopes to do the same thing with data centers, eventually making ai technology flow like electricity.

chatbots like openai’s chatgpt learn skills by analyzing massive amounts of data. but there is a shortage of the chips and data centers that drive this process. if supply increases, openai believes it can build more powerful artificial intelligence systems. in dozens of meetings held over the past period, openai executives have urged technology companies and investors to expand global computing power.

"altman is thinking about how openai can stay relevant," said daniel newman, ceo of technology research firm futurum group. "it needs more computing power, and more electricity." meanwhile, openai has been separately negotiating to raise $6.5 billion to support its own operations, a deal that would value the startup at $150 billion. dollar. uae technology investment firm mgx is part of a group of potential investors that also includes microsoft,nvidia, apple and tiger global. openai seeks to raise money because its expenses far exceed its revenue. the company has annual revenue of more than $3 billion and expenses of about $7 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

this spring, openai executives held talks with japanese officials in tokyo. they proposed a plan to build data centers powered by nuclear power plants decommissioned after the 2011 fukushima disaster. during the meeting at the time, a japanese official mocked openai and said the company was seeking 5 gigawatts of power, roughly a thousand times the power consumed by a typical data center, people familiar with the matter said. later, in talks with german officials, openai explored the possibility of building a data center in the north sea so that it could harvest 7 gigawatts of power from offshore wind turbines.

openai is also exploring plans to build data centers in the united states. at a white house meeting this month, altman presented openai research titled "infrastructure is destiny." the study calls for the construction of new data centers in the united states. according to people familiar with the matter, the plan proposed by openai is to build at a cost of us$100 billion per building - about 20 times the cost of today's most powerful data centers - to accommodate 2 million artificial intelligence chips and consume 5 gigawatts of power. . altman told government officials, including commerce secretary gina raimondo and national security adviser jake sullivan, that ai data centers would be a catalyst for the re-industrialization of the united states, creating as many as 500,000 jobs. (compiled by tencent technology/wuji)