Sam Altman stood on a hot Texas patch of land, overlooking the outlines of what will soon be a massive data center complex. Behind him stretched the west-central part of Texas, where heavy winds and extreme heat often meet. OpenAI CEO unveiled its largest infrastructure push: a 17-gigawatt buildout in partnership with Oracle, Nvidia, and SoftBank.
The plan requires the amount of electricity needed to power over 13 million US homes, equivalent to 17 nuclear plants or nine Hoover Dams. At $50 billion per site, OpenAI’s projects add up to $850 billion in spending, nearly half of HSBC’s forecasted global AI infrastructure surge at $2 trillion.
Altman acknowledges concerns but insists the growth is due to soaring demand for ChatGPT, which saw a tenfold increase over 18 months. A network of supercomputing facilities is needed to maximize AI capabilities. Altman believes that electricity is the biggest bottleneck and has invested in nuclear companies for steady energy output.
Critics warn of a bubble, citing Nvidia’s market value increasing by hundreds of billions due to tie-ups with OpenAI. However, Friar argues that this is part of a coordinated ecosystem to meet historic surge in compute needs.
OpenAI’s partners are betting big on the future, with Oracle reshaping its leadership around AI and Nvidia investing in equity alongside chips. The Abilene facility is being leased by Oracle, while OpenAI will pay operating expenses for data centers. Friar pointed out that this arrangement creates a balancing act between equity, debt, and operating expenses.
The company’s long-term relationship with Microsoft is also crucial, but Altman said the question of an IPO is complicated. He believes that eventually OpenAI will be a public company, but it would make long-term investments harder due to quarterly expectations on Wall Street.
In the near term, billions are being invested in chips and data centers across various locations. However, OpenAI is not just about infrastructure; they acquired Jony Ive’s startup for $6.4 billion, hinting at hardware that could reshape computer usage.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/23/sam-altman-openais-850-billion-in-planned-buildouts-bubble-concern.html