I'm starting to think the manufacturing wizards at TSMC were right:
Chips: "TSMC execs allegedly dismissed Sam Altman as ‘podcasting bro’ — OpenAI CEO made absurd requests for 36 fabs for $7 trillion"
From the Wall Street Journal via MSN, July 22:
A $500 billion effort unveiled at the White House to supercharge the U.S.’s artificial-intelligence ambitions has struggled to get off the ground and has sharply scaled back its near-term plans.
Six months after Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son stood shoulder to shoulder with Sam Altman and President Trump to announce the Stargate project, the newly formed company charged with making it happen has yet to complete a single deal for a data center.
Son’s SoftBank and Altman’s OpenAI, which jointly lead Stargate, have been at odds over crucial terms of the partnership, including where to build the sites, according to people familiar with the matter.
While the companies pledged at the January announcement to invest $100 billion “immediately,” the project is now setting the more modest goal of building a small data center by the end of this year, likely in Ohio, the people said.
Stargate’s lethargic launch is a setback to the vast ambitions of Son, who despite spending billions of dollars over the years, has been playing catch-up in the fast-evolving AI sector.
SoftBank committed $30 billion to OpenAI earlier this year. It is by far the largest-ever startup investment—an enormous wager that has led SoftBank to take on new debt and sell assets. The investment was made alongside the plans for Stargate, giving SoftBank a role in the physical infrastructure needed for AI.
Altman, eager to secure the computing power to support the next generations of his company’s signature product, ChatGPT, has plowed ahead without SoftBank, signing deals for data centers with other operators.
The leaders of both companies say all is well in their joint effort. Last week they appeared on video at a SoftBank event, and Altman said they have an initial goal of building 10 gigawatts of data centers together. It is a “wonderful partnership,” he said.
In a joint statement, the two companies said they were advancing projects in multiple states and were “moving at hyperscale and speed to deliver the AI infrastructure that will power the future and serve humanity.”
Stargate’s rocky start hasn’t slowed the data-center development spree that Trump has said is a national priority. AI enthusiasts say the world will require a gargantuan effort to build the warehouse-like structures filled with computer servers—and the electricity needed to supply them—on par with the construction of railroads in the 19th century.
Altman’s OpenAI recently struck a data-center deal with Oracle that calls for OpenAI to pay more than $30 billion a year to the software and cloud-computing company starting within three years, according to people familiar with the transaction.
That deal, which doesn’t involve SoftBank, totals 4.5 gigawatts of capacity, and would consume the equivalent power of more than two Hoover Dams, enough to power about four million homes. The data centers are spread among locations around the U.S., people familiar with the deal said.
data-center deals for nearly as much capacity as Stargate promised for this year in January. (OpenAI has said $100 billion roughly equates to 5 gigawatts of data centers.)
Despite Stargate’s slow start, Son has told associates he is bullish on OpenAI and would like to invest even more in the company, a person familiar with the matter said....
....MUCH MORE
If interested see also:
"How Is SoftBank Funding Its Mega Investment in OpenAI? A Lot of Debt"
Leveraged beta, baby!
From the Wall Street Journal, April Fools Day, 2025....
