Why Sam Altman Won't Be on the Hook for OpenAI's Spending Spree

14 days ago

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OpenAI has committed to spending $1.4 trillion on datacenters, despite projected annual revenue of only $20 billion.
OpenAI's CFO suggested the government could act as a 'backstop' for commitments, but later retracted the statement.
Sam Altman stated that if OpenAI fails, the market—not the government—should deal with the fallout.
To meet its commitments, OpenAI's revenue would need to grow to $577 billion by 2029, a 2900% increase from current projections.
Experts suggest OpenAI may only utilize a portion of the compute it has booked, leading to renegotiations with partners like Oracle and Microsoft.
Contracts often include performance milestones and can be terminated 'for cause,' providing flexibility for OpenAI.
Altman has no financial stake in OpenAI, reducing his personal risk if the company fails.
OpenAI's deals have boosted the market caps of partners like Oracle, Nvidia, and Amazon by billions.
In a worst-case scenario, Microsoft, as OpenAI's largest equity holder, would likely be paid first in a bankruptcy.
Altman is focused on securing enough compute to train better AI models, viewing this as more critical than financial risks.

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