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This is a community dedicated to the hardware aspect of technology, from PC parts, to gadgets, to servers, to industrial control equipment, to semiconductors.

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Legendary chip architect Jim Keller responds to Sam Altman's plan to raise $7 trillion to make AI chips — 'I can do it cheaper!' (www.tomshardware.com)

submitted 9 months ago by testeronious to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 9 months ago

Yeah, I'd take Keller's word before anything coming out of Altman's mouth.

[–] beetus 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Read the article, sounds like both parties are just blowing smoke. At the end it tells us current investment into this market was less than 100b last year. So 1tril is a 10x investment of the yearly we see today. It also suggested the entire chip industry is doing about 600b in sales. So Sam is looking to take a 10x investment into the space?

Altman's fundraising goal of $5 trillion to $7 trillion far exceeds the present valuation of the worldwide semiconductor industry, which recorded sales of $527 billion last year and is anticipated to hit the $1 trillion mark by 2030. Meanwhile, chip manufacturers invested $99.5 billion in chip fabrication equipment in 2022 and are projected to allocate $97 billion for fabrication tools this year.

I mean I believe the numbers they come up with, that they want to 10x the space. But it's a ludicrous goal that doesn't really make sense in practice. Every CEO would love to take on 7 trillion dollars of investment to do anything and would scream it from the mountaintops.

I just don't know that what they are saying is meaningful at all, at least Sam's 7tril claim