The AI Revolution will require more chips: Sam Altman may lead the way

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman talks with members of Congress about increasing the world’s supply of advanced computer chips necessary to train and run artificial intelligence programs as he seeks to launch a hugely expensive venture to build new chip factories.

Advanced semiconductor chips are essential to train and run the AI programs that enable generative AI products like ChatGPT. Altman and other tech leaders insist that AI will fundamentally change the world economy, and having a cheap supply of computer chips is crucial to maintaining U.S. competitiveness economically and militarily.

Altman is spearheading the initiative to raise billions or even trillions of dollars from investors around the world because he believes chips will become more vital to economic and technological development as AI continues to advance, one of the people said. Bloomberg News reported last week that the project centered around building a “network of factories” to increase chip production.

Building advanced computer chips is hugely expensive and complicated. They must be assembled in “clean rooms” that keep tiny particles and even static electricity from damaging the chips. A single fab takes 6,000 workers three years to build and costs $10 billion - like the one Intel is building just outside of Columbus!

While some AI researchers expect the demand for AI chips to slow down as technologists find ways to run advanced AI with less computing power, few can imagine a world in which there isn’t massive investment in this new critical asset.

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