Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is aiming for a $7 trillion investment in a new AI chip project

According to The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is looking for investments worth billions of dollars to transform the world’s semiconductor market.

Altman has long discussed how OpenAI’s expansion is constrained by the supply-and-demand issue with AI processors, which many AI behemoths desire but there aren’t enough of. A report published in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday night claims that he is talking to various investors, including the government of the United Arab Emirates, about a project that would boost the capacity of the world to produce chips.

Altman may need to fund $5 trillion to $7 trillion for the project, according to a source cited by The Wall Street Journal.

The world «needs more ai infrastructure—fab capacity, energy, datacenters, etc.—than people are currently planning to build,» according to OpenAI, according to a post made by Altman on X on Wednesday. He went on to say that OpenAI would make an effort to assist in «building massive-scale AI infrastructure, and a resilient supply chain, is crucial to economic competitiveness.»

Prior to his temporary dismissal from his position as CEO of OpenAI, Altman was allegedly flying to the Middle East to acquire capital for a brand-new, unnamed semiconductor company called «Tigris» that would eventually take on Nvidia.

After Altman was fired by OpenAI’s board in November of last year, there were resignations, or threats of resignations, from almost every employee of the company, as well as a backlash from investors, including Microsoft. In just one week, Altman returned to the organization. Since then, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor have joined OpenAI’s board of directors. Microsoft was granted a non-voting observer position on the board, and the corporation intends to add additional members.