OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is in talks with investors, including from the United Arab Emirates, to raise between $5 trillion to $7 trillion in funding. The goal, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, is to increase the world's chip manufacturing capacity and enhance AI capabilities.

The fundraising efforts are part of a broader strategy to address OpenAI's growth constraints, particularly the scarcity of AI chips needed for training large language models like ChatGPT.

Altman's proposal is said to include forming a partnership with investors, chip manufacturers, and power providers to finance the construction of chip foundries, which would then be operated by the chip manufacturers.

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[–] 185 points 2 years ago* (12 children)

That's fairly bold to ask for ~6% of the total world economy as well as a sizable chunk of the world's energy.

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    [–] 134 points 2 years ago (10 children)

    The fundraising efforts are part of a broader strategy to address OpenAI’s growth constraints,

    see...we just can't grow without TRILLIONS OF FUCKING DOLLARS

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    [–] 123 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    Good thing the board folded and allowed this to be full for-profit. Getting people reliant on LLM subscriptions is super important for humanity right now.

    Another L for Earth, in general.

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    [–] 112 points 2 years ago (37 children)

    For perspective, global annual GDP is $105 trillion, which means Altman is asking the world to invest 6.7% or so of the entire world's economic output for one year in his company.

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  • [–] 51 points 2 years ago* (29 children)

    Holy fucking bonkers when you put it that way. Like holy fuck.

    Are they that close to something amazing, or is Altman going true Dr Evil megalomaniac?

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    [–] 76 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    I also want to raise $5 - $7 trillion dollars.

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    [–] 70 points 2 years ago (12 children)

    I wonder if this will be one of the things pointed at after the AI bubble bursts. Yes, AI will be sticking around, but the hype over it now is ridiculous.

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    [–] 60 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    Could that level of investment ever be recouped in any other manner than by replacing vast numbers of workers and their salaries?

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  • [–] 29 points 2 years ago

    Well, see, if we grind down 8 billion people into a nourishing slurry with a shelf life of a century, that should be worth at least $1000 a person, with inflation. That's a 50% profit on your investment!

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  • [–] 25 points 2 years ago

    That's my question; presumably the people in charge of that much wealth aren't total fools and will be wanting to see some actual numbers and a business case as to how they will see a return, not just platitudes and enthusiasm.

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    [–] 58 points 2 years ago

    Thank God there is trickle down economics. We will all benefit in the end... Right?

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  • [–] 49 points 2 years ago (10 children)

    $7,000,000,000,000? It's a good thing we won't tax it ever at all in any capacity! Not while there's Single Mothers overdrawn on their Bank Accounts! #SaveTheTrillionaires!

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    [–] 46 points 2 years ago (14 children)

    Do they even think about where in a functioning society those trillions are coming from? Do they think wealth just magically appears without affecting the wealth gap?

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    [–] 45 points 2 years ago (12 children)

    5-7 trillion and they’ll still end up stealing data from all over the internet.

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    [–] 42 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    We will come to regret not jailing San Altman.

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    [–] 40 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    Can someone ELI5 what's the open in the OpenAI's name at the moment?

    I know they released Whisper as an open source model and that's about it, but I might be wrong.

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    [–] 36 points 2 years ago

    I used to think they were unethical scammers.

    Now I know for sure.

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  • [–] 32 points 2 years ago

    Just a few more parameters, then the text prediction model will become sentient.

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  • [–] 29 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    I, too, would like 5-7 trillion dollars

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    [–] 28 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Let's use that money to build an orbital ring instead. Would be cooler and more useful.

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    [–] 28 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    We could solve so many problems with that much money.

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    [–] 25 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    You could build a huge, state-of-the-art orbital station for 1 trillion lol

    why spend it on some software

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    [–] 22 points 2 years ago

    Motherfucker is going for the biggest heist of all time. What a colossal waste of money and resources.

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago

    $2.92T is current Apple market cap btw

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    This mother fucker REALLY wants the machine uprising ending.

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    [–] 18 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    I'm not pretending AI isn't useful. There is plenty of field where AI helps. But, AI has been the next scam after blockchain, crypto, NFT...

    It's the end of our civilization with falling capitalism. But, capitalism will try to find new ways to make short term profits. We moved from fordism to post-fordism with the enslavement of the cognitive abilities. We entered the next era with all these scams. And entshitification is a symptom of this.

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    [–] 18 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It’s too bad the non-profit oversight board got killed by the for-profit subsidiary. OpenAI is dead on arrival as useful tech. It’s now a vehicle to deceive investors to raise VC cash.

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    [–] 18 points 2 years ago

    What are we going to do tonight Pinky?

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.

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