OpenAI To Invest In Efforts To Build AI Infrastructure Overseas

OpenAI plans to invest in efforts outside of the US to develop the infrastructure necessary to run artificial intelligence systems, building on its Stargate effort focused on AI data centers in the US.

Under the new program, launched Wednesday, the ChatGPT maker will partner with national governments to help with efforts like building out data center capacity. The company will also help countries customize OpenAI's products for specific languages and local needs, part of an effort toward what Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman has called “commercial diplomacy.”

The funding for the partnerships will come from OpenAI, as well as the governments in each country, the company said. The goal is for the company to pursue 10 international projects to start, but it declined to name where they'll be located. The company says it will seek to work with states that use OpenAI's technology in democratically friendly ways.

The project, called OpenAI for Countries, came into focus after the Paris AI Action Summit, said Chris Lehane, the company's vice president of global policy. At that conference, multiple international leaders asked OpenAI representatives about how they could create their own version of the OpenAI-led Stargate project, which aims to invest $500 billion in AI infrastructure in the US.

“We've heard from many countries asking for help in building out similar AI infrastructure — that they want their own Stargates and similar projects,” OpenAI said in a blog post. “It's clear to everyone now that this kind of infrastructure is going to be the backbone of future economic growth and national development.”

The OpenAI for Countries initiative will be separate from the Stargate Project — the joint venture spearheaded by OpenAI, SoftBank Group Corp., Oracle Corp. and other partners. Still, the efforts are closely related, and OpenAI considers the effort part of its global Stargate-branded push to build out AI infrastructure around the world.

Lehane at the AI Action Summit in Paris. Photographer: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg

OpenAI is pitching the project as a way for the US to lead other allied countries to take advantage of AI, an effort it says is increasingly important in light of technological competition with China. In a recent set of recommendations to the US Office of Science and Technology on export controls, OpenAI defined the market of democratically aligned countries as “the entire world” less China and its “few allies.”

The contours of OpenAI's work will vary by country, Lehane said. For example, some countries might already be building data centers and just need OpenAI to help them optimize that capacity for AI-specific workloads, while others could be building data centers from scratch. “I think there'll probably be different flavors,” Lehane said. “Each one individually will be somewhat bespoke to what that particular country needs.”