7 trillion dollars of artificial insanity

OpenAI frontman Sam Altman wants a lot of AI chips and he wants them to be cheap. He’s talking to financiers in the Middle East to secure 5-7 trillion dollars to create a semiconductor manufacturing industry just for AI, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. Altman intends to hand over the money he raises to TSMC to construct and operate chip plants.

Seven trillion dollars, that’s a lot of money. It’s several times bigger than the world’s biggest investment fund and 13 times last year’s semiconductor market. It’s roughly the GDP of the Netherlands, France and the UK combined. You could buy a couple of Big Seven companies or make a few manned trips to Mars.