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

On November 7th, Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI, published a long article stating that OpenAI neither needs nor desires the U.S. government to provide backing for its data centers. The U.S. government should not artificially favor certain companies over others, and taxpayers should not be used to bail out companies that make poor business decisions or fail in the market. If a company fails, others will step in to make contributions. It may be appropriate for the government to build (and own) its own AI infrastructure, but the benefits should also go to the government. We can envision a world where the government decides to purchase a large amount of computing power and decides how to use it, and providing lower-cost funding for this may be reasonable. Establishing a national strategic computing reserve is of great significance. However, this should be for the benefit of the government, not for private companies. OpenAI expects its annual 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 continuous revenue growth, and each doubling presents a huge challenge, but we at OpenAI are confident in the future. Secondly, regarding "Is OpenAI trying to become 'too big to fail'?", our answer is a definite no. If we make irreparable mistakes and fail, other companies will continue to do good work and serve customers. This is the correct way to operate, and our goal is to become a very successful company. If we make mistakes, 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 well-prepared for this moment. Moreover, we no longer believe that this day is far away. Our mission requires us to do everything possible 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.