Trillion-dollar vision for AI age

OpenAI plans to build infrastructure of tomorrow

SAN FRANCISCO:

In the high-stakes world of artificial intelligence, Sam Altman has positioned himself as the boldest visionary of his generation — and perhaps its greatest gambler. This week, the OpenAI chief executive unveiled plans to push the company toward a trillion-dollar infrastructure buildout, an ambition that dwarfs even Silicon Valley's most extravagant dreams.

After sealing a fresh deal with Microsoft that loosens financial restrictions on the company, Altman went live to declare his next move: OpenAI will develop 30 gigawatts of computing resources worth $1.4 trillion.

His goal, he said, is to eventually reach a scale where the company could add one gigawatt of computing power every week. The sheer audacity of the plan left even industry veterans astonished.

Altman's pitch reflects a growing belief that AI will underpin every major industry of the future, from finance and medicine to defence and education. Yet, his plans also raise uncomfortable questions about how such vast expansion will be financed, who will control it, and what it means for global power structures already transformed by the digital revolution.

Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, OpenAI has become synonymous with the rise of consumer-facing artificial intelligence. The chatbot's viral success triggered a historic shift in the tech sector, forcing rivals like Google, Meta and Amazon to divert billions into competing systems. Altman has not hidden his ambition to make OpenAI "the most important company in the history of Silicon Valley", a statement he first made to staff shortly after ChatGPT's debut.

That ambition is now manifesting in projects such as Stargate — a $500 billion AI infrastructure venture involving Oracle, Nvidia, SoftBank and CoreWeave — designed to expand global data capacity. Announced at the White House in January, Stargate represents the early phase of what Altman hopes will be an unprecedented expansion of computing power. Standing beside US President Donald Trump during the announcement, Altman described the project as a job creator that would "rebuild America's digital backbone."

Behind the optimism lies a formidable economic challenge. To sustain the scale of his ambitions, Altman has said OpenAI must eventually generate hundreds of billions in annual revenue — far beyond its current pace.

Industry insiders estimate OpenAI's revenue run rate will reach $20 billion by the end of 2025, driven primarily by licensing agreements and enterprise partnerships with Microsoft. To reach Altman's target, the company would need to multiply that figure at least tenfold within a few years.

The company's restructuring this week appears to lay the groundwork for that growth. Altman confirmed that OpenAI's new corporate design allows it to raise money more freely and that an initial public offering is now "the most likely path" ahead. The move positions OpenAI alongside Big Tech giants in both scale and ambition — a stunning transformation for an organisation that began as a nonprofit committed to safe AI research.

Altman's rise mirrors Silicon Valley's most storied entrepreneurs — Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg — though his focus is less on consumer gadgets or e-commerce than on creating the infrastructure of intelligence itself. Analysts describe the current phase of AI development as "a sport of kings", requiring massive financial and energy resources. Gil Luria of DA Davidson remarked, "Altman understands that to compete in AI he will need to achieve a much bigger scale than OpenAI currently operates at."

But there are growing murmurs of concern. Critics warn that the speed and opacity of OpenAI's deals, particularly its complex financial arrangements with companies like Nvidia, could inflate perceptions of growth and fuel an unsustainable AI bubble.

Musk, who co-founded OpenAI before leaving in 2018, has become one of Altman's fiercest detractors, accusing the company of abandoning its mission to benefit humanity. He has even filed a lawsuit arguing that OpenAI's for-profit shift violates its founding principles.

Some of Altman's former colleagues have echoed that sentiment, claiming that the CEO's hunger for scale may outpace ethical oversight. They argue that OpenAI's push toward commercial dominance risks sidelining safety and transparency — concerns that have shadowed the industry since its inception.

Altman himself has weathered turbulence. Two years ago, he was briefly ousted by OpenAI's board amid tensions over governance and accountability, only to be reinstated days later following internal revolt and public support from Microsoft.

That episode, now being turned into a Hollywood film titled 'Artificial', underscores the cultural magnitude of the AI boom. Actor Andrew Garfield, known for portraying Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin in 'The Social Network', is set to play Altman — a fitting parallel between two eras of tech transformation.

The stakes extend beyond business. AI is now at the centre of geopolitical competition, shaping national security policies and influencing everything from currency markets to electoral integrity. As companies like OpenAI race to dominate the sector, governments are scrambling to establish regulatory frameworks that can keep pace.

In this new landscape, Altman's trillion-dollar vision is as much about control as innovation. The construction of massive data centres — the backbone of AI computing — requires vast amounts of land, energy and capital. That, in turn, is likely to deepen the global divide between countries capable of hosting AI infrastructure and those left dependent on foreign technology providers.

Meanwhile, the line between finance, technology and entertainment continues to blur. As OpenAI builds toward its monumental expansion, Trump Media and Technology Group has announced that its platform, Truth Social, will allow users to place bets on real-world events, from elections to commodity prices. The integration of AI-powered prediction markets with social platforms signals how artificial intelligence is seeping into every corner of economic and social life.

Prediction markets, which federal regulators classify as financial instruments rather than gambling, are now seen as one of the most promising frontiers for AI integration. They use algorithms to aggregate data and forecast outcomes — precisely the sort of analytical power Altman envisions scaling globally.

For all its promise, the convergence of AI, finance and social media raises new ethical dilemmas about manipulation, data privacy and addiction.

Experts warn that as technology becomes more predictive — and more profitable — human behaviour itself risks being commodified on an unprecedented scale.