OpenAI's CEO, Altman, is on a mission to secure funds and forge manufacturing partnerships in East Asia and the Middle East, aiming to satisfy the company's ever-growing computing power requirements. Since the latter part of September, he has embarked on a journey across several Asian locales, engaging in discussions with leading chip suppliers like TSMC and Foxconn. During these meetings, he has been actively encouraging them to ramp up their production capacities and accord priority to supplying OpenAI.

Earlier in the week, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix inked letters of intent with OpenAI, committing to supply memory chips. Moreover, Altman has set his sights on traveling to the UAE to gather financial support. As per sources close to the matter, OpenAI anticipates that its server leasing expenses will soar to roughly $16 billion this year, with the potential to escalate to an astonishing $400 billion by 2029.