"'OpenAI' Altman Discusses AI Semiconductor Development and Production with UAE Investors"

"Discussing Fundraising with UAE President's Brother and Others"

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the developer of the generative artificial intelligence (AI) ChatGPT, is reportedly in talks with investors from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Taiwan's TSMC to develop AI semiconductors.

According to foreign media on the 21st, industry insiders revealed that Altman is discussing funding with wealthy investors from the Middle East to develop AI semiconductors necessary for building new AI models and to construct a factory for their production.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is having a conversation at the 'K-Startups meet OpenAI' event hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on June 9 last year at 63 Square, Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

Among those involved in the discussions is Thani bin Zayed, National Security Advisor and brother of UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Thani is also the owner and chairman of the UAE AI company G42.

Thani manages the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), which operates the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund valued at $800 billion (approximately 1,070 trillion KRW), as well as another Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, ADQ.

Earlier, Bloomberg reported that Altman is discussing funding with investors including G42 and Japan's SoftBank Group.

The exact scale of the funding Altman aims to raise is still uncertain. However, according to foreign media, since semiconductor development competing with Nvidia?which has a market capitalization of about $1.5 trillion (approximately 2,000 trillion KRW)?requires massive capital, the necessary funds are likely to be in the billions of dollars.

Additionally, Altman is reportedly in talks with TSMC, the world's largest foundry company, regarding AI semiconductor production. OpenAI is currently developing a major upgrade to its large language model (LLM), GPT-4, expected to be released within this year, which will require a large volume of expensive AI semiconductors.