OpenAI, Developer of ChatGPT, to Invest $73 Billion in Computing Infrastructure This Year

Greg Brockman, President of OpenAI, Testifies in Court

OpenAI, the developer behind ChatGPT, announced that it plans to invest approximately $50 billion (about 73 trillion won) into computing infrastructure this year alone in order to expand its artificial intelligence (AI) model development and services.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI (right), and Greg Brockman, co-founder and president of OpenAI. Photo by Yonhap News

Greg Brockman, President and Co-founder of OpenAI, stated on May 5 (local time) during court testimony related to the lawsuit between Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, that "computing costs have surged from $30 million in 2017 to tens of billions of dollars this year." This increase is attributed to the advancement of AI models and a growing user base.

Since launching ChatGPT in 2022, OpenAI has led the generative AI market and moved to secure large-scale semiconductors and data centers. In this process, it has risen to the center of a major investment ecosystem involving global cloud companies and semiconductor firms.

The company plans to invest over $1.4 trillion in AI infrastructure in the future. In February, OpenAI informed investors of its plan to invest $600 billion in computing resources from companies such as Nvidia, Amazon, and Microsoft (MS) by 2030.

Recently, OpenAI raised $122 billion (180 trillion won) in what is considered the largest investment in Silicon Valley history, but the company has yet to turn a profit. In particular, OpenAI is aiming for an initial public offering (IPO) this year, which adds pressure to establish a stable revenue structure.

Earlier, CEO Musk filed a lawsuit, alleging that OpenAI abandoned its original purpose as a nonprofit organization for the public good by pursuing a transition to a for-profit company and receiving billions of dollars in investment from Microsoft (MS). The remedies Musk is seeking reportedly include the removal of OpenAI executives such as Altman and Brockman, payment of over $180 billion in damages from OpenAI's for-profit division to its nonprofit parent company, and reversal of recent changes to the company's governance structure.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.