People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is working hard to raise billions of dollars from investors to build an AI chip company. His goal is to use the funds to build a production network to produce semiconductors.
Ultraman is rumored to be discussing cooperation with several large investors, hoping to raise the huge funds needed for a chip manufacturing plant or fab. This plan also involves cooperating with well-known chip manufacturers in the industry to expand the production network to cover the world.
Companies rumored to be discussing cooperation with Ultraman include G42, an AI company headquartered in Abu Dhabi, and Japan's SoftBank Group. As discussions between the two parties are at an early stage, the complete list of investors and partners has not yet been finalized. OpenAI was rumored to be in talks with G42 in October last year, focusing on raising US$8 billion to US$10 billion from G42, but the progress of both parties is currently unclear.
In addition, companies such as Intel, TSMC, and Samsung have a share of the chip manufacturing market and may also become potential partners of OpenAI.
However, OpenAI, as well as the above-mentioned G42, SoftBank Group, Intel, TSMC, and Samsung, refused to make any comments.
"Bloomberg" reported that Altman had been working hard to prepare the chip project until he was temporarily suspended by the board of directors at the end of last year. He returned to the company and resumed the project. He also consulted Microsoft, which is interested in its plans as a major investor in OpenAI.
As AI applications become more and more popular, there may not be enough chips to deploy computing resources. Altman's actions seem to reflect concerns about the shortage of semiconductors, prompting him to speed up his search for money and partners to build an AI chip production network.