OpenAI Founder Aiming to Establish Rocket Company to Compete with Musk in Space

SadaNews - A new report revealed that Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is looking to build, fund, or acquire a rocket company to compete with billionaire Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, in the space race.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Altman is considering buying or partnering with an existing rocket launch service provider.

The report noted that Altman's goal is to support space data centers to operate the next generation of artificial intelligence systems.

The paper stated that Altman may have already contacted "Stock Space", at least one rocket company based in Washington, over the summer, and discussions gained momentum in the fall.

Among the proposals is a series of investments worth billions from OpenAI, which could eventually give the company a controlling stake in the rocket firm.

The report indicated that these discussions have cooled since then, according to sources close to OpenAI.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Altman's contact with the rocket company came at a time when his company is facing scrutiny over its ambitious expansion plans.

OpenAI entered into new commitments worth billions, although it has not clarified how it will finance the large-scale expansion.

Earlier this week, Altman expressed significant concern at the company level after the "ChatGPT" program began to decline against Google's "Gemini" chat robot; leading OpenAI to postpone other launches and ask employees to redirect their teams to focus on improving its flagship product.

Altman sees his interest in rockets aligning with the idea that AI's demand for energy will push computing infrastructure off-planet.

He has long advocated for the creation of space data centers to harness solar energy in space while avoiding the environmental difficulties on Earth.

Both Musk and Jeff Bezos, along with Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, share similar ideas.

Stock Space, which was founded by former Blue Origin engineers, is developing a fully reusable rocket called "Nova", which reports suggest is comparable to what SpaceX aims to achieve.

The Wall Street Journal noted that the proposed partnership would provide Altman with a shortcut opportunity to enter the space launch sector.

Altman’s talks shed light on the ongoing rivalry between him and Musk. The two co-founded OpenAI in 2015, then clashed over the company's direction, leading Musk to leave after three years.

Since then, Musk has launched his own AI company, xAI, while Altman has expanded OpenAI’s ambitions and recently backed projects that compete directly with Musk's ventures, including a startup focused on brain-computer interfacing.

Altman hinted at his aspirations in space earlier this year, saying: "I think a lot of the world will eventually be covered by data centers. Maybe we'll build a large Dyson sphere around the solar system and say: hey, it doesn't make sense to put this on Earth."

Then in June, he wondered: "Should I start a rocket company?" before adding: "I hope humanity can eventually consume a significantly larger amount of energy than we can generate on Earth."