OpenAI's $1T spending commitment to power dealmaking boost among US firms

OpenAI is collaborating with several US corporate and technology firms to build a web of billion-dollar deals, all to spend a trillion dollars within the next 5 years. 

The ChatGPT maker has committed to spend more than $1 trillion over the next decade, raised through debt partnerships and fundraising. According to the Financial Times, OpenAI now generates roughly $13 billion in annual revenue. 

FT mentioned that an estimated 70% of its revenue comes from everyday users who pay $20 per month for ChatGPT Plus, from about 5% of its 800 million regular user base.

OpenAI signs contracts with Nvidia and AMD

OpenAI has reportedly locked in contracts for more than 26 gigawatts of computing capacity from major US technology providers, including Oracle, Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom. The cost of maintaining this infrastructure exceeds the company’s current cash flow, which is why Sam Altman and his group are seeking funding and diversification.

Executives have reportedly laid out a five-year plan to expand OpenAI’s business model beyond its chatbot. The company is looking for opportunities in government contracts, retail shopping tools, video services, consumer hardware, and computing infrastructure through its Stargate data center project, which could eventually supply AI computing power to external clients.

Last week, OpenAI signed a multibillion-dollar partnership with chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), Nvidia’s biggest rival. The deal involves sending tens of billions of dollars’ worth of AMD processors to OpenAI’s infrastructure, while the latter becomes one of AMD’s largest shareholders.

The AMD partnership followed an announcement from Nvidia and OpenAI on September 22, which revealed a $100 billion joint investment to improve the capabilities of its existing data centers. 

A day later, OpenAI confirmed it had struck a separate $300 billion deal with Oracle to construct data centers in the United States. Oracle pledged to invest billions of dollars in Nvidia’s chips for those facilities, purportedly recycling the capital back to the semiconductor chip manufacturers.

OpenAI, Oracle, and Nvidia’s reinvestment cycle

Even with OpenAI’s business plan at hand, some jitters about Oracle’s profitability came after the company’s cloud division delivered narrower margins than many analysts expected. 

Internal documents cited by The Information showed Oracle earned roughly $900 million in sales last quarter by renting servers powered by Nvidia chips. However, its gross profit stood at just 14 cents to the dollar in sales.

Moreover, people familiar with the matter told reporters that Nvidia plans to invest up to $2 billion in equity in Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI as part of a $20 billion funding round. Cryptopolitan reported that the round is structured through a special purpose vehicle that will use about $7.5 billion in equity and as much as $12.5 billion in debt to purchase Nvidia processors. 

xAI would then rent out the chips over five years, a circular supply chain that continues to benefit the firm’s hardware sales, much to the dismay of both OpenAI and Oracle.

Nvidia also boosted cloud computing company CoreWeave’s initial public offering (IPO) by acquiring a 7% stake, then committed to buying $6.3 billion in cloud services from the company, all services that rely on Nvidia’s own chips. 

Altman introduces new AI features as OpenAI fights lawsuits

As OpenAI scales its financial and technological ambitions, chief executive Sam Altman announced Tuesday that ChatGPT will soon allow verified users to generate erotic content to “treat adult users like adults.”

Altman said it would let ChatGPT behave in a more human-like manner, but only if they want it. 

The company is still battling a wrongful death lawsuit, filed earlier this year by Matt and Maria Raine, the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine, who died by suicide in April.

The California couple accused OpenAI of negligence, presenting chat logs between Adam and ChatGPT in which the teenager reportedly shared suicidal thoughts. 

Altman said OpenAI’s earlier decision to restrict ChatGPT’s responses around mental health issues was meant to protect vulnerable users. 

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