(Bloomberg/Dina Bass and Shirin Ghaffary) — OpenAI is looking to bolster its US hardware supply chain and find partners for a push into consumer devices, robotics and cloud data centers, part of a major product expansion planned for the coming years.
The maker of ChatGPT has put out a request for proposals from companies that manufacture in the US and offer components such as silicon, motors, packaging material and gear for cooling data centers. The requests don’t indicate how much OpenAI intends to spend or over what time frame.
Shares of Symbotic Inc., which offers robotics and warehouse automation, gained as much as 5.2% to $71.55 on Thursday.
OpenAI has said that it ultimately plans to devote trillions of dollars to data center expansions, which it sees as directly tied to its ability to boost revenue. It has also acquired the AI device startup co-founded by Apple Inc. veteran Jony Ive, a step toward entering the consumer device market. And a November deal with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., known as Foxconn, will let OpenAI design and manufacture hardware for data centers. That partnership is meant to ensure that server racks can be made in the US.
OpenAI has also previously used such requests for proposals to solicit ideas and partners for its Stargate project — an effort to build $500 billion in US data centers and AI infrastructure over the next few years. The move is meant to help spur manufacturing of components in the US, a key priority of the Trump administration.
“AI is a catalyst for the reindustrializing of the country,” Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer, said in an interview. “We do have to bring back the supply chain here.”
OpenAI’s interest in robotics partners suggests that it’s moving more aggressively into that area. Lehane said the company believes the robotics industry will blossom more quickly than some expect. Though China has an advantage right now in terms of hardware, the US may have an edge in developing the AI brains of the machines, he said.
The data center request asks for ideas on keeping AI chips from overheating — a focus of startups and industrial companies. But the chips themselves also are evolving, which may mitigate the need for cooling equipment. Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said last week that his company’s next chip generation may be able to be cooled without some of the traditional gear, hurting stocks of companies that make products like chillers.
(Updates with shares ofSymbotic in third paragraph.)
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