Sam Altman confirmed OpenAI's $850 billion expansion is real and driven by massive AI demand

Sam Altman says people are right to be worried about the size of OpenAI’s new expansion, but he isn’t backing down from ￰0￱ from a construction site in Abilene, Texas, where OpenAI is building its first mega data center, the CEO told reporters on Tuesday that the $850 billion infrastructure rollout is necessary. “People are worried. I totally get that,” Sam said. “We are growing faster than any business I’ve ever heard of before.” As Cryptopolitan reported , OpenAI is now committed to building data centers powered by 17 gigawatts of energy, roughly the same output as 17 nuclear plants or nine Hoover ￰1￱ electricity load alone could power more than 13 million ￰2￱ site costs about $50 billion, and in total the buildout is almost half of the global $2 trillion AI infrastructure push forecasted by ￰3￱ explained that the scale is just a response to a huge spike in ￰4￱ the last 18 months, ChatGPT usage has jumped ￰5￱ handle it, Sam said OpenAI needs an entire network of supercomputing sites.

“This is what it takes to deliver AI,” he said. “Unlike earlier versions of the internet, this requires massive ￰6￱ this is only a fraction of it.” Partners lock in funding, power, and leadership to meet AI demand The biggest issue isn’t money or chips, according to Sam, but power. “Electricity is the constraint,” he ￰7￱ led a $500 million funding round for Helion Energy, a fusion firm building a test reactor, and also helped take fission startup Oklo public through his own ￰8￱ everyone’s ￰9￱ say the whole setup smells like a ￰10￱ tied to OpenAI, like Nvidia, Oracle, Microsoft, and Broadcom, have seen trillions in value ￰11￱ and Microsoft alone are now worth $8.1 trillion, which is 13.5% of the S&P ￰12￱ also say the model looks ￰13￱ is throwing money at projects run by its partners, who then fund and supply the same projects, making money off chip sales and leasing data centers back to ￰14￱ Sarah Friar, OpenAI’s CFO, dismissed that argument.

“Folks like Oracle are putting their balance sheets to work,” she said ￰15￱ is leasing the Texas ￰16￱ is contributing both chips and equity, including its Vera Rubin accelerators for future AI ￰17￱ will pay to run the sites once they’re live, while Nvidia gets paid as their chips are ￰18￱ said the goal is to bring new capacity online next year, but the team is also planning for what gets built in 2027, 2028, and ￰19￱ said there’s a massive shortage of compute, and OpenAI needs to build now to avoid getting stuck later. OpenAI’s partners shift roles as devices enter the picture Oracle is already switching up its leadership to focus on ￰20￱ Monday, it named Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia as co-CEOs, replacing Safra ￰21￱ was running cloud infrastructure, and Mike led Oracle ￰22￱ told CNBC, “I only see more and more demand from the end users … what looks like near infinite demand for technology.” Sarah also talked about OpenAI’s close ties with Microsoft.

“They’re a major partner,” she ￰23￱ hinted at new developments but said they’re “not fully ready to announce everything yet.” There’s also hardware in the ￰24￱ May, OpenAI acquired Jony Ive’s new device startup for $6.4 ￰25￱ said the idea is to build computers that don’t just process commands, but actually “understand and think.” The first batch of hardware will be limited. “A small family of devices,” he ￰26￱ he added, “the potential is something big.” When asked about an IPO, Sam kept it vague. “I assume that someday we will be a public company,” he said. “I have mixed feelings about it.” He noted that public markets force companies to focus on short-term earnings, which could get in the way of long-term ￰27￱ he also said, “I think that the world should, if people want to, own shares in OpenAI.

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