OpenAI’s Altman urges US to expand Chips Act tax credit for AI growth

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(Reuters) -OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Friday doubled down on the company’s ask for the U.S. to expand eligibility for a Chips Act tax credit, as the country accelerates efforts to secure its position as a global leader in artificial intelligence.

Altman’s comment follows OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane’s October 27 letter to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios seeking an extension of eligibility for the Advanced Manufacturing Investment Credit (AMIC) to AI server production, AI data centers and grid components.

The AMIC is a U.S. federal tax incentive designed to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

“We think U.S. re-industrialization across the entire stack — fabs, turbines, transformers, steel, and much more — will help everyone in our industry, and other industries (including us),” Altman said in a post on X on Friday.

But the tax credit is “super different than loan guarantees to OpenAI”, Altman said.

The company has spoken with the U.S. government about the possibility of federal loan guarantees to spur construction of chip factories in the U.S., but not data centers, Altman had said earlier this week.

OpenAI has committed to spend $1.4 trillion building computational resources over the next eight years, he had said.

Booming demand for AI models and products, including OpenAI’s widely used ChatGPT, has prompted leading tech companies to unveil ambitious plans for building more data centers and developing advanced chips.

David Sacks, the White House AI and crypto czar, however, had said there would be no federal bailout for AI.

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)