Shortly after ChatGPT was released to the public in late 2022, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees they were on the cusp of a new technology revolution.
Altman said OpenAI could soon become “the most important company in the history of Silicon Valley,” according to two former company employees.
There is no shortage of ambition in the US technology sector. Meta president Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos often talk about transforming the world. Elon Musk, president of Tesla, aims to colonize Mars. But even by those standards, Altman’s aspirations stand out.
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Following a deal with Microsoft on Tuesday that removed limits on how OpenAI raises money, Altman laid out even more ambitious plans to build an AI infrastructure capable of meeting growing demand.
The restructuring marks a crucial moment for OpenAI, consolidating its transition from a research-focused laboratory to a corporate giant structured to raise large sums of capital, eventually potentially going public.
In a live broadcast on Tuesday, Altman said OpenAI is committed to developing 30 gigawatts of computing resources, which will require investments of $1.4 trillion. Eventually, he would like OpenAI to be able to add 1 gigawatt of computing power per week — an astronomical sum, given that each gigawatt currently has a capital cost of more than $40 billion. Altman said that, over time, costs could be cut in half, without detailing how.
“AI is a king’s sport,” said Gil Luria, an analyst at DA Davidson. “Altman understands that to compete in AI, he will need to reach a much larger scale than OpenAI currently operates.”
However, the executive offered few details about how OpenAI might realize its biggest ideas.
Altman has previously said that OpenAI is exploring a number of creative funding options. The company has also struck unusual and seemingly circular deals with publicly traded companies such as Nvidia. These transactions have drawn criticism for creating the illusion of higher-than-real growth, raising the specter of a bubble in the AI market.
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Trillions of dollars
In January, Altman went to the White House to announce Stargate, a $500 billion AI infrastructure project that the company is working on with Oracle, SoftBank, Nvidia and cloud computing services provider CoreWeave.
Alongside US President Donald Trump — whom he has previously criticized as “irresponsible” — Altman said the initiative will create hundreds of thousands of jobs. “We wouldn’t be able to do this without you, Mr. President,” he said at the time.
At the time, Altman said the Stargate project would build 10 GW of data center capacity, which has now tripled, according to his recent comments.
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These plans are just the beginning, Altman said. To support the massive investment, he stated that “we eventually need to get to hundreds of billions a year in revenue.”
This will require OpenAI — which is expected to reach an annual run rate of $20 billion in revenue by the end of the year — to grow ten times faster than its current pace.
The newly formed OpenAI Foundation will direct the company’s mission and use its resources to apply AI to curing diseases and a new initiative to fund “AI resilience,” OpenAI said, though it’s unclear where the loss-making company will find the money.
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Path to IPO
ChatGPT sparked the AI craze, forcing big tech companies to spend billions to keep up. Since then, Altman has led OpenAI from a research nonprofit to a $500 billion company trying to develop AI systems so powerful they can fundamentally alter society.
Altman, who briefly considered running for governor of California in 2017, has no ownership stake in OpenAI and earns just $76,000 a year from the company. Most of his net worth comes from investments in large technology companies such as Stripe, Airbnb and, more recently, startups looking to profit from the AI boom sparked by OpenAI.
Even at 20, he was already a force. In 2008, Y Combinator founder Paul Graham summed up the then-23-year-old Altman: “You could parachute him onto an island full of cannibals and in five years he would be king.”
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Altman, now 40, succeeded Graham as president of the startup accelerator in 2014.
Tuesday’s news of the restructuring, along with Altman’s comment that an initial public offering (IPO) is the most likely path for OpenAI, suggests he is preparing to fund his grander ambitions.
In pursuit of his goals, Altman has made some enemies, including billionaire Elon Musk, OpenAI co-founder and early supporter who left the company in 2018.
Musk sued OpenAI, claiming it strayed from its mission of being a nonprofit. He also criticized the Stargate project for lack of funding.
This year, several former OpenAI employees supported Musk’s lawsuit, arguing that Altman could not be trusted to prioritize public safety over profits.
Two years ago, Altman was removed from OpenAI after disagreements with management, but was reinstated a few days later.
This period will be the subject of the Hollywood film “Artificial”, scheduled for release next year. Actor Andrew Garfield, who played Brazilian Eduardo Saverin in “The Social Network,” will star as Altman, according to IMDb.
