OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wants to build chip fabrication plants with investment money

Sam Altman has his sights set on creating chip fabrication plants.

Bloomberg News on Friday reported on the OpenAI CEO’s goal of establishing factories dedicated to semiconductors, an important component for artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The outlet cited unnamed sources "with knowledge of the plans."

Reports about Altman trying to drum up the necessary funds have been circulating for a couple of months. 

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He needs significant investment to facilitate the endeavor and has been approaching entities about the possibility of providing it, according to Bloomberg.

Altman has talked to technology firm G42, looking for $8-$10 billion, according to Bloomberg. SoftBank is reportedly another company with which he has talked.

FOX Business reached out to OpenAI, G42 and SoftBank for comment.

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Multiple chip fabrication plants would reportedly be established as part of Altman’s global semiconductor endeavor with collaboration from other companies. 

Bloomberg identified Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Samsung and Intel as companies that could be considered possible for a team-up with OpenAI. FOX Business reached out to those companies for comment, with Intel declining to do so.

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Semiconductor demand and supply has reportedly helped drive Altman’s intent to build chip fabrication plants.

OpenAI, which experienced some turbulence late last year amid Altman’s firing and return, is the company behind ChatGPT, which first debuted to the public in late 2022.

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The company has since started offering several different versions of its wildly-popular AI chatbot, as well as an application programming interface and other tools.

Earlier this month, it rolled out a store of custom user-built ChatGPT bots to paying customers.