Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI is reportedly in touch with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to launch an AI chip fabrication plant. As per the recent report in The Financial Times, Altman aims to raise billions of dollars from global investors for a chip plant, and it is also talking with the Taiwanese giant TSMC.
When questioned about the development, both- OpenAI and TSMC did not comment on the same. Altman is reportedly in talks with one of the wealthiest persons in Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, for the semiconductor plant.
Sheikh Tahnoon is the brother of the Gulf state’s president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, for whom he is the national security adviser. He also oversees the USD 800 billion (around Rs 80 crores) Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and ADQ, another state investment entity, according to the report.
It is, however, not clear how much Altman is seeking to raise for his new venture. Bloomberg first reported that Altman was in talks over a chip venture with Middle-Eastern investors. TSMC has chips in Apple’s laptops and phones, along with many ARM and AMD devices.
Meanwhile, Tang Tan, Apple’s VP of iPhone design, is reportedly joining legendary designer Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Altman and working on a new AI hardware project. Reports surfaced in November last year that Altman was planning to launch a new AI venture. OpenAI once had a robotics research division but it was disbanded in July 2021 after encountering technical roadblocks.
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Inputs from IANS
