Sam Altman: OpenAI is not too big to fail, and the U.S. government should not artificially determine the outcome.

On November 7, Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI, published a long article stating that OpenAI does not need or want the U.S. government to provide guarantees for OpenAI's data centers. The U.S. government should not artificially decide who wins or loses, and taxpayers should not bail out companies that make poor business decisions or fail in the market. If a company fails, others will continue to contribute. It may be reasonable for the government to build (and own) its own AI infrastructure, but the benefits of doing so should also accrue to the government. We can envision a world where the government decides to purchase a large amount of computing power and determines how to use that power, and it may be reasonable to provide lower funding costs for this purpose. Establishing a national strategic computing capability reserve is significant. But this should be for the benefit of the government, not for private companies. OpenAI expects its annualized revenue to exceed $20 billion this year, growing to 100s of billions by 2030. In the next 8 years, it is expected to receive about $1.4 trillion in investment commitments. This requires sustained revenue growth, and each doubling presents huge challenges, but OpenAI is confident in the prospects. Secondly, regarding whether 'OpenAI is trying to become too big to fail?' our answer is an absolute no. If we mess up and cannot make up for it, then we should fail, and other companies will continue to do well and serve customers. This is the correct way to operate; our goal is to become a very successful company, but if we make mistakes, the responsibility lies with us. In an era where artificial intelligence can bring significant scientific breakthroughs but also requires enormous computing resources, OpenAI hopes to be well-prepared for this moment. Moreover, we no longer see this day as being far off. Our mission requires us to do everything we can to apply artificial intelligence to solve problems quickly, such as helping to conquer deadly diseases, and to bring the benefits of general artificial intelligence (AGI) to humanity as soon as possible.