OpenAI's Bold, Wild Commitments

OpenAI will raise $10 billion from Amazon, pushing its valuation over $500 billion. Where will that money go? Mostly back to Amazon for compute, including using Amazon’s Trainium series of AI chips, similar to earlier deals signed with Nvidia, Oracle, AMD, and Broadcom. In total, OpenAI has committed to $1.5 trillion in long-term deals.

This is just the latest deal OpenAI has inked with titans across the global economy. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, recently described the strategy for its wild levels of liabilities.

We have decided that it is time to go make a very aggressive infrastructure bet. To make the bet at this scale, we kind of need the whole industry, or a big chunk of the industry, to support it.

Who knows if this strategy will pay off in the end – whether OpenAI or another firm wins the AI wars is anyone’s guess – but I respect their decision to go for it. Win or lose, they are moving the whole industry, and by extension world, forward.