Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, was recently seen in UAE meeting government officials and investors. He has been working out to build a global coalition of government and tech industry leading figures to boost support for artificial intelligence technology. People familiar with the developments have highlighted Altman’s intention of convincing governments around the globe for taking measures of increasing computer chip production facilities, increasing data centers capacity, and raising energy production to meet AI requirements.
Sam Altman on his visit to the UAE
In his spree to persuade governments, Altman visited the United Arab Emirates this week and met government officials and deep pocketed investors to discuss ways on how the private sector and governments can work together to facilitate artificial intelligence projects, as these projects are extremely costly and require enormous resources. Before the UAE, Altman has also visited different western countries and talked to various officials on the same subjects. Altman also supposedly met Martina Strong, who is the US ambassador to the UAE.
Visiting the UAE is not surprising due to the fact that Dubai has shown excellent improvement in technology advancement over the past years, and there are sufficient reasons to gain attention from Altman, as it now stands near Switzerland in terms of innovation and technology, as Dubai now scores 8.7 out of 10. In terms of technology, it ranks third globally after Switzerland and Singapore, surpassing Hong Kong. On the regulatory side, the UAE is among the first states to introduce regulations regarding virtual assets.
UAE is the second largest economy of the Arab world and is continuously diversifying its resources from an oil based economy to tourism and now fintech. During the fourth quarter of previous fiscal year UAE’s economy observed a growth of 8%, and UAE’s economy is expected for a robust improvement according to a report of UAE,s central bank.
Later this week, Altman is expected to visit Washington to meet US officials, taking them onboard and likely convincing them for their support. It is not clear what the outcomes may be of these efforts, but Altman seems determined to pursuing his goals. Such efforts have not been seen before from any private company’s head for artificial intelligence advancements, and it shows Sam Altman’s interest in fulfilling the requirements, as it is expected that the current infrastructure and current supply of silicon chips will not be able to keep up with the demands in the near future. As we know, there is already a supply gap in computer chip supply, and it will increase with an increase in demand, so building infrastructure is crucial.
What is the need for a Global AI Cabal?
Altman is seeking to get funds amounting to billions of dollars from governments and investors alike to build a huge network of silicon chip factories across many countries in order to meet AI demands for semiconductors. But there is an additional layer to Altman’s outreach, as his intentions seem to be more than setting up semiconductor factories. Artificial intelligence is power hungry technology, so he is also interested in energy production initiatives, especially nuclear power, but he is also debating solar options. Altman is a fan of nuclear energy and has supported Oklo, a startup focusing on small modular reactors, and Helion Energy, which is working on fusion technology.
Altman has pursued billions of dollars from business giants like Microsoft, Japan’s SoftBank, and Abu Dhabi’s G42, and well as from many others, during the past months-in order to build a number of silicon chip manufacturing factories. But from the overall scenario, it is becoming clear that it is not only about chip factories and supply chains but quite more about energy production, like nuclear installations, and increasing the capacity of giant datacenters and building more of them.
But there is a catch, Altman engaging with UAE investor G42 can bring the collaboration under US regulators’ scrutiny because of G42’s ties with Chinese counterparts, which have already brought G42 under investigation. UAE’s G42 has been investing huge cash in AI tech, including supercomputers with Cerebra’s wafer scale GPUs. This project alone is suggested to be a $900 million investment. G42 is said to have trimmed relations with Chinese suppliers to please the US.
Altman has been accused of trying to seek $7 trillion for silicon chip manufacturing. Certainly the word “cabal” implies something “sinister” but Mr. Altman corrects the misimpression, and denies the claim, calling it internet disinformation. The depth of his targets is still unknown, but sources speculate that his ambitions are practically billions of dollars and may exceed these figures.
Original story at Bloomberg
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