OpenAI’s plan to make artificial intelligence flow like electricity

Late last year, Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, started pitching an audacious plan that he hoped would create the computing power his company needed to build more powerful artificial intelligence.

In meetings with investors in the United Arab Emirates, computer chip makers in Asia and officials in Washington, he proposed that they unite on a multitrillion-dollar effort to erect new computer chip factories and data centers across the globe, including in the West Asia. Though some participants and regulators balked at parts of the plan, the talks have continued and expanded into Europe and Canada.