OpenAI is working with a UAE investment firm, to create a deal in which the artificial intelligence research group gets all the money it needs to design and manufacture its own AI acceleration processors. With Nvidia currently dominating the market and its H100 chips in short supply around the world, OpenAI is clearly looking to join Amazon and Google in having full control over its own AI capabilities and future.
But I can't imagine that MGX, the UAE investment firm in question, is unaware of this, as the company's chairman is Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who also chairs another AI development firm, and acts as the national security adviser for UAE. The country is especially keen on putting itself front and centre in the world of AI investment and has a dedicated funding system in place for such ventures.
I should imagine the deal will go through, given OpenAI's status in the field, but whether or not it results in any meaningful success in a sensible timeframe, I'm far less certain about. Amazon and Google have shown it is possible to make a unique, dedicated AI accelerator without requiring decades of chip experience under the belt, but both started down that road many years ago.
Copilot and ChatGPT iterating 'This is fine' memes perfectly captures the current state of AI: faintly alarming hilarious madness