There has been a lot of speculation about OpenAI's own AI chips, but the latest news suggests Altman's ambitions may well be even bigger.

On January 20, Beijing time, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is planning to use billions of dollars to build a semiconductor wafer fab of a certain scale. Semiconductor wafer fab is the core link of semiconductor manufacturing. It has its own manufacturing plant and equipment, which can process wafer raw materials through complete process steps and finally become finished chips.

Because fabs can design, manufacture and sell their own chip products, competing directly with other equipment vendors for end markets, this option seems to best meet OpenAI's growing quest for cost-effectiveness and infrastructure control.

Altman believes AI technology will become pervasive enough to support its own semiconductor supply chain in the coming years, Bloomberg reported. OpenAI will then compete with the likes of Intel, TSMC and Samsung in this field, the report said.

The report also said Altman has held talks with several large potential investors in hopes of raising the huge amount of capital needed for the fab. They include ABU DDhabi based cloud computing giant G42 and Japan's SoftBank Group, but all talks are at an early stage. In addition, the project involves working with the world's top chipmakers, with whom OpenAI hopes to build a network of fabs across the globe.