Sam Altman: OpenAI is not "too big to fail," and the US government should not artificially pick winners and losers

BlockBeats News, November 7th, OpenAI founder Sam Altman published a lengthy article stating that OpenAI neither needs nor wants the U.S. government to backstop OpenAI's data centers. The U.S. government should not artificially pick winners and losers, and taxpayers should not bail out companies that make bad business decisions or fail in the market. If a company fails, others will step in to contribute. It may be reasonable for the government to build (and own) its own AI infrastructure, but the benefits should also accrue to the government. We can imagine a world where the government decides to purchase a significant amount of computing power and determines how to use it, and providing lower-cost funding for this may be reasonable. Establishing a national strategic computing reserve is significant. However, this should be for the government's benefit, not for private companies. OpenAI expects its annualized revenue to exceed $20 billion this year and grow to several hundred billion dollars by 2030. The next eight years are expected to receive approximately $1.4 trillion in investment commitments. This requires ongoing revenue growth, and each doubling represents a huge challenge, but we at OpenAI are confident in the outlook.

Secondly, regarding "Is OpenAI trying to become 'too big to fail'?", our answer is a resounding no. If we mess up irreparably, we should fail, and other companies will continue to do good work and serve customers. This is the right way to operate, and our goal is to become a very successful company, but if we get it wrong, the responsibility is ours.

In an era where artificial intelligence can bring about significant scientific breakthroughs but also requires enormous computing resources, OpenAI hopes to be prepared for this moment. Moreover, we no longer believe that this day is far off. Our mission requires us to do everything in our power to quickly apply artificial intelligence to solve difficult problems, such as helping to conquer deadly diseases, and to quickly bring the benefits of artificial general intelligence (AGI) to humanity.