3 ms·

I don't understand, what prompted OpenAI recently to need this 1.4T investment?

pinnochio 11mo ago
Believe it or not, that's actually a walkback from the $5 to $7 trillion he was pushing for almost two years ago. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/02/report-sam-altman-seeking-trillions-for-ai-chip-fabrication-from-uae-others/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/02/repor...
- tootie 11mo ago
  I remember and it lends some credence to the notion that Altman is just making up big numbers.
- jgalt212 11mo ago
  He was just anchoring. https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/negotiation-skills-daily/what-is-anchoring-in-negotiation/ https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/negotiation-skills-daily/w...
  - pinnochio 11mo ago
    Absolutely. It's anchoring in the service of a massive con.
Gigachad 11mo ago
They are going all in, promising so many deals to so many companies that if OpenAI fails, the entire US economy will explode. Expecting the government will bail them out to prevent such a disaster.
- goatlover 11mo ago
  Billionaires and corporations too big too fail are bad for democracy. They have an oversized impact on society and the government.
- therein 11mo ago
  That would do nothing to prevent such a disaster. It would guarantee it.
  - omnimus 11mo ago
    That's not really true. It may be legit strategy. If they realize they overhyped the whole industry, and everyone is tied to them, and they have strong political allies… if you also realize it's going to crumble. You might just see bailout as only viable option so you make yourself even bigger to fail. If it turns like this it's extremely cynical and one would wonder how could Altman stay ou of prison (i am sure he will not go to prison).
JumpCrisscross 11mo ago
> what prompted OpenAI recently to need this 1.4T investment? Capital denial to competitors.
hoppp 11mo ago
I think every company would like to have that. OpenAI is in a hyped up position that it can get it, so they go for it. I don't buy that they can create AGI by investing trillions in training models and infrastructure. If you ask me, this is just more money spent on pollution. The need to replace humans to be profitable, just sounds like the end goal is to destroy the planet with datacenters and hurt people generally. Sounds like a net negative for the planet.
an0malous 11mo ago
All of Sam’s shenanigans go back to that one popular post on here many months ago about how AI has no moat. LLMs are a commodity, Chinese companies are just releasing them for free. Sam has gone all in on OpenAI and needs to secure his company, he knows it could be another decade until they discover an innovation on par with tranformers and there’s absolutely no way they can go from burning tens of billions of dollars a year to profitable by selling a rapidly commoditized technology.
- sumedh 11mo ago
  LLMs are a commodity but ChatGpt is a brand, for most people AI means ChatGpt. They are not going to use Chinese models. ChatGpt is also building other products/brands like Sora to capture more mindshare. Linux is free and yet people use Windows.
  - woooooo 11mo ago
    An operating system is a lot stickier than a website URL. Google has stayed on top for 25 years because they're better and free. LLM providers will have to compete on price doing expensive inference.
    - sumedh 11mo ago
      Google stayed on the top because of business deals with Apple and Firefox and then they got the biggest marketing tool called Chrome. Chatgpt can become an Ad company just like Google probably bigger than Google.
    - jhanschoo 11mo ago
      If a foundation model provider allows fine-tuning on confidential data but the result is locked into the platform, wouldn't that be extremely sticky?
  - an0malous 11mo ago
    All this transformer tech is a commodity, no one will care about the brand if an alternative is free so it’s a race to the bottom. Yes people use Windows. Go look up the history of how that came to be, it had nothing to do with their brand. Sam is looking for his IBM.
Spooky23 11mo ago
The need to say “fuck you” to Elon and one-up him.
ineedasername 11mo ago
Absolutely nothing. They don't, they didn't, it's a poorly stitched together attack job. The 1.4 T amounts to a broad nearly decade long capex plan, not liabilities. The loans and backstops etc were a request, not for OpenAI, but on behalf of manufacturers of grid equipment, manufacturers that OpenAI wouldike the government to consider as eligible for money already carved out by the AMIC national investment in chips and AI, and also probably more money as well-- it's a separate group of tangential industries that weren't initially considered, so why not ask? Sure it would help keep the wheels moving in OpenAI and the broad AI and US semiconductor industry, but it's far away from and ask by Altman for a bailout of his company.
- techblueberry 11mo ago
  Narrator: it was in fact a bailout they were asking for.
  - ineedasername 11mo ago
    What is it that happened roughly 2 months ago? It seems like a disproportionate number of all the low-effort comments on the anti-ai side of things are coming from accounts that age.
    - techblueberry 11mo ago
      I turned 11, and my mom let me get a hacker news account!

Believe it or not, that's actually a walkback from the $5 to $7 trillion he was pushing for almost two years ago. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/02/report-sam-altman-seeking-trillions-for-ai-chip-fabrication-from-uae-others/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/02/repor...

tootie 11mo ago
I remember and it lends some credence to the notion that Altman is just making up big numbers.
jgalt212 11mo ago
He was just anchoring. https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/negotiation-skills-daily/what-is-anchoring-in-negotiation/ https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/negotiation-skills-daily/w...
- pinnochio 11mo ago
  Absolutely. It's anchoring in the service of a massive con.

Gigachad 11mo ago

They are going all in, promising so many deals to so many companies that if OpenAI fails, the entire US economy will explode. Expecting the government will bail them out to prevent such a disaster.

goatlover 11mo ago
Billionaires and corporations too big too fail are bad for democracy. They have an oversized impact on society and the government.
therein 11mo ago
That would do nothing to prevent such a disaster. It would guarantee it.
- omnimus 11mo ago
  That's not really true. It may be legit strategy. If they realize they overhyped the whole industry, and everyone is tied to them, and they have strong political allies… if you also realize it's going to crumble. You might just see bailout as only viable option so you make yourself even bigger to fail. If it turns like this it's extremely cynical and one would wonder how could Altman stay ou of prison (i am sure he will not go to prison).

JumpCrisscross 11mo ago

> what prompted OpenAI recently to need this 1.4T investment? Capital denial to competitors.

hoppp 11mo ago

I think every company would like to have that. OpenAI is in a hyped up position that it can get it, so they go for it. I don't buy that they can create AGI by investing trillions in training models and infrastructure. If you ask me, this is just more money spent on pollution. The need to replace humans to be profitable, just sounds like the end goal is to destroy the planet with datacenters and hurt people generally. Sounds like a net negative for the planet.

an0malous 11mo ago

All of Sam’s shenanigans go back to that one popular post on here many months ago about how AI has no moat. LLMs are a commodity, Chinese companies are just releasing them for free. Sam has gone all in on OpenAI and needs to secure his company, he knows it could be another decade until they discover an innovation on par with tranformers and there’s absolutely no way they can go from burning tens of billions of dollars a year to profitable by selling a rapidly commoditized technology.

sumedh 11mo ago
LLMs are a commodity but ChatGpt is a brand, for most people AI means ChatGpt. They are not going to use Chinese models. ChatGpt is also building other products/brands like Sora to capture more mindshare. Linux is free and yet people use Windows.
- woooooo 11mo ago
  An operating system is a lot stickier than a website URL. Google has stayed on top for 25 years because they're better and free. LLM providers will have to compete on price doing expensive inference.
  - sumedh 11mo ago
    Google stayed on the top because of business deals with Apple and Firefox and then they got the biggest marketing tool called Chrome. Chatgpt can become an Ad company just like Google probably bigger than Google.
  - jhanschoo 11mo ago
    If a foundation model provider allows fine-tuning on confidential data but the result is locked into the platform, wouldn't that be extremely sticky?
- an0malous 11mo ago
  All this transformer tech is a commodity, no one will care about the brand if an alternative is free so it’s a race to the bottom. Yes people use Windows. Go look up the history of how that came to be, it had nothing to do with their brand. Sam is looking for his IBM.

Spooky23 11mo ago

The need to say “fuck you” to Elon and one-up him.

ineedasername 11mo ago

Absolutely nothing. They don't, they didn't, it's a poorly stitched together attack job. The 1.4 T amounts to a broad nearly decade long capex plan, not liabilities. The loans and backstops etc were a request, not for OpenAI, but on behalf of manufacturers of grid equipment, manufacturers that OpenAI wouldike the government to consider as eligible for money already carved out by the AMIC national investment in chips and AI, and also probably more money as well-- it's a separate group of tangential industries that weren't initially considered, so why not ask? Sure it would help keep the wheels moving in OpenAI and the broad AI and US semiconductor industry, but it's far away from and ask by Altman for a bailout of his company.

techblueberry 11mo ago
Narrator: it was in fact a bailout they were asking for.
- ineedasername 11mo ago
  What is it that happened roughly 2 months ago? It seems like a disproportionate number of all the low-effort comments on the anti-ai side of things are coming from accounts that age.
  - techblueberry 11mo ago
    I turned 11, and my mom let me get a hacker news account!