OpenAI boss Sam Altman wants $7T. For all our sakes, pray he doesn't get it

theguardian.com

39 points·sandebert··11 comments

If it really only takes 20B/fab, workers, and water, then the USA is a few government contracts away (easily explainable in military budget ;) ) from leading semiconductor manufacturing by passing a New New-Deal program and building fabs near the Great Lakes and two Coasts.

Only problem is will.

> Only problem is will.

We'd also need to staff each fab site with a sufficient number of experts to run the site.

I'm not sure how many of those people exist in the world, but I'd bet it's a low number and most of them currently live in Taiwan.

IMO the US is off to a good start on re-industrialization, however like you allude to lack of trained personnel will be an issue.

Re-industrialization will be a multi-decade endeavour.

Related but flagged?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39365132

This is the second time I've seen $7T referenced without a clear citation. Is this just rhetorical or did Sam Altman actually say it somewhere?

WSJ got it from an anonymous source. Could just be an attempt to anchor the valuation of OpenAI.

Maybe he could settle for $100B, I know someone with exemplar track record when it comes to losin^^^investing https://www.reuters.com/technology/softbanks-son-is-seeking-...

I'm all for funding fabs and competitors against nvidia for chips, even for 7T, but obviously not one person should be in charge of it

"if you need $7T to make progress on ai, you probably don't have the right architecture"

where does the idea that democracy only works with a growing economy?

first time i've heard that, and it doesn't seem right.

It's definitely something Thiel imparted into him. That kind of phrase is something Thiel has been hammering for awhile.

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