Jim Keller Challenges Sam Altman's $7 Trillion AI Chip Goal with Sub-$1 Trillion Bid

Many in the industry are shocked by rumors that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman intends to raise between $5 and $7 trillion to construct a network of fabrication facilities capable of producing sufficient processors for artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

In a report of Tom’s Hardware, Jensen Huang of Nvidia, the architectural innovation exhibited by AI processors holds greater significance than their quantity. Now, legendary CPU developer Jim Keller, who currently develops AI and HPC processors for Tenstorrent, asserts the same.

"I can do it for less than $1 trillion," Keller stated in response to Altman's remark with the following quote, "f* it why not 8," in an apparent reference to raising the fundraising amount to 8 trillion.

Altman's Bold $7 Trillion AI Chip Plan Faces Realities of Semiconductor Supply

Extremely ambitious is Altman's plan to raise trillions of dollars and produce sufficient AI processors to support all workloads and emergent AI companies. However, this effectively necessitates substantially enlarging the semiconductor supply chain, potentially resulting in foundry overcapacity and market depreciation of these processors.

Keller and Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, agree that these processors should become more sophisticated rather than producing additional circuits for AI. Furthermore, to reduce the price of AI servers and other devices, the supply chain for AI hardware must become more streamlined.

"Start by eliminating the margin stacking," Keller said, indicating the profit margin or cost imposed by each supply chain participant to deliver a product to the end user. "There are two–three layers. Then, make chips way faster so the hardware matches the software. That is harder but doable."

Tenstorrent's Bold AI and HPC Processor Roadmap Faces Rapid Demand Growth

Aspects of Tenstorrent's extremely ambitious road map include the creation of processors for AI and HPC applications. As an AI processor progresses along the roadmap, the number of processing units it comprises increases, and these units further develop, enhancing their performance efficiency.

However, the growth rate in demand for AI performance is relatively rapid; therefore, it remains to be seen whether Tenstorrent and other companies will be able to match it shortly.

Altman's fundraising objective of $5 trillion to $7 trillion significantly surpasses the current valuation of the global semiconductor industry, which generated $527 billion in sales in 2020 and is projected to reach $1 trillion by 2030. In the interim, chip manufacturers allocated $97 billion for fabrication tools this year, compared to the $99.5 billion they invested in chip fabrication equipment in 2022.

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