Altman sticks a different hand out, wants tax credits instead of gov loans

Free money is always better than a loan! OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said he doesn't want government-backed loans to fuel his AI ambitions, but he's more than okay with the idea of Uncle Sam handing out tax credits under the US CHIPS Act to subsidize AI server production, bit barns, and grid components.

Posting on the social network formerly known as Twitter on Friday, the AI hype fiend said that the US had previously played a role in critical infrastructure build-outs and emphasized the importance of securing domestic chip production, adding that it shouldn't stop there.

"We think US reindustrialization across the entire stack - fabs, turbines, transformers, steel, and much more - will help everyone in our industry, and other industries (including us)," Altman's X post read.

Altman's comments come just days after OpenAI's Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane penned [PDF] a letter to the White House highlighting key strategic bottlenecks including access to adequate power and calling on the administration to expand the Advanced Manufacturing Investment Credit (AMIC) to incentivize not just US chip production but servers, datacenters, and grid improvements as well.

As of July, the AMIC - passed as part of the US CHIPS Act - provides up to 35 percent tax credit on eligible infrastructure improvements tied to US chip production.

For Altman, a tax credit is a far cry from a government-backed loan. This is "super different from loan guarantees to OpenAI," he wrote. "It would be good for the whole country, many industries, and all players in those industries."

The idea that OpenAI might want government-backed loans to finance its journey to the artificial general intelligence (AGI) promised land has sparked no shortage of controversy. On Wednesday, CFO Sarah Friar suggested that a federal "backstop" would open the door to additional financing while speaking at the WSJ Tech Live event.

Friar later walked back her comments, clarifying that OpenAI wasn't seeking loan guarantees itself, a point that Altman felt compelled to emphasize in a lengthy X post.

"We believe that governments should not pick winners or losers, and that taxpayers should not bail out companies that make bad business decisions or otherwise lose in the market."

It's worth noting, however, that regardless of whether it's a federally guaranteed loan or a tax credit, anything that benefits OpenAI's partners is in the model dev's interests.

Altman's $500 billion Stargate bit barns initiative is going to run into roadblocks eventually if there aren't enough chips, servers, or power to support them. Therefore, anything that Uncle Sam does to incentivize investments in these areas keeps the stream of hot air flowing into the AI bubble for a little while longer.

Unfortunately for Altman, the cracks in this grand plan may be starting to show. Also on Friday, Micron, which was awarded $6.1 billion in funding under the CHIPS Act last year, revealed it was delaying construction of its memory chip plants in Clay, New York, until at least 2030.

Micron is the sole supplier of American-made high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in Nvidia and AMD's most powerful accelerators.

The delay, first reported by the Syracuse Post-Standard, will also see Micron reallocate about $1.2 billion of its CHIPS Act winnings to its fab expansion in Idaho.

While Micron didn't offer much detail as to the reasons for the delays, the paper cited Ryan McMahon, a local county official, as saying that labor shortages and longer-than-expected construction timelines may have impacted the plans. The Register reached out to Micron for comment; we'll let you know if we hear anything back. ®