OpenAI eyes Asia-Pacific for future AI data centre sites
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OpenAI’s chief strategy officer Jason Kwon is slated to travel to countries including Singapore starting next week, a source said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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San Francisco – ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is eyeing the Asia-Pacific for future data centre sites, joining an already heated race to build out artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the region.
The move comes just after OpenAI secured a deal to partner the United Arab Emirates to help develop a massive data centre project in Abu Dhabi.
The Asia-Pacific is home to more data centres than any other region worldwide, with capacity expansion plans by Google parent Alphabet, Microsoft and Facebook owner Meta Platforms.
OpenAI’s chief strategy officer Jason Kwon will visit the region to meet government officials and potential private-sector partners to discuss AI infrastructure and OpenAI software use.
Mr Kwon is slated to travel to countries including Japan, South Korea, Australia, India and Singapore starting next week, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named as the information is private.
The tour is part of a broader effort announced earlier in May in which OpenAI seeks to partner governments to build AI capabilities rooted in democratic values and open markets.
The start-up will also help countries customise OpenAI products for local languages and needs, and plans to first focus on 10 partnerships across regions.
OpenAI’s chief executive Sam Altman has spent more than a year evangelising for the global construction of huge data centres to help his company build powerful AI systems. His announcement on May 22 of the massive UAE project is an indication that his wildly ambitious plan, called Stargate, may be starting to gain traction.
The UAE project is part of a joint venture with software giant Oracle, chipmaker Nvidia, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, networking provider Cisco and G42, an Emirati AI firm. The first of several data centres planned for the complex is expected to be up and running in 2026.
G42 is also expected to contribute money to the construction of OpenAI data centres in the US. For every dollar that the company and its partners invest in the UAE, they will invest an equivalent amount in the US data centres, OpenAI said. While it did not say how much the new UAE facility would cost, its size suggests G42 will invest tens of billions of dollars in each country.
OpenAI’s plans have drawn pushback from Washington, however, because of concerns about sharing bleeding-edge hardware and technology abroad, particularly in countries like the UAE that have strong ties to China. The US and UAE governments are discussing the details of an AI agreement that includes measures concerning China.
More than 30 countries have reached out to OpenAI to discuss its effort to help develop AI infrastructure globally, the company’s chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on May 22.
“The world understands that we are in a moment,” he said. “There is an imperative to get access to this technology.” BLOOMBERG, NYTIMES
