OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has described the current rush to build artificial intelligence infrastructure as “unsustainable silliness.” He told The Decoder that many new cloud providers are announcing massive capacity without the revenue or customer base to justify such spending. Altman contrasted this reckless behaviour with OpenAI’s own expansion, which he says remains profitable and backed by genuine demand. He noted that too many competitors operate with a “cost is no object” mindset, planning to build enormous amounts of compute even if prices rise sharply.
This shift in tone marks a noticeable change from his previous stance when Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei accused him of spending money recklessly on hardware. Altman warned that if OpenAI improves its efficiency quickly enough, today’s expensive projects could become bad financial bets for the wider industry. He also acknowledged that a broad downturn might strain the company’s ability to pay for committed capacity, though he considers that risk manageable. While OpenAI does not yet sell compute to third parties, Altman did not rule out the possibility in the future.
* Neocloud providers are announcing capacity without verified revenue streams.
* OpenAI maintains profitability while competitors adopt a “cost is no object” approach.
* The CEO’s tone has shifted from aggressive expansion to cautious caution.
