“Demand for AI will grow enormously over the long term,” Sam Altman said. He expects the use of tokens—the units of information AI models process—to rise sharply as AI writes custom software in real time and finds wider use in robotics, spacecraft, and scientific research. “The biggest constraints on AI expansion over the next few years will be the chip supply chain and data center infrastructure,” Altman said. “We need more investment in the supply chain.” Asked by Samsung executives whether OpenAI’s continued heavy investment was putting pressure on profitability, Altman replied, “That’s the crux of it. If we can build vertically integrated infrastructure at a lower cost than anyone else and sell tokens in high volumes at thin margins, we can get ahead of the competition.” “The market is so large that the usual rules of a commodity business don’t apply,” Altman said. “Just meeting global demand for tokens would be enough to build a thriving industry.” Reply to @jukan05: During a Q&A with Samsung executives, Sam Altman addressed concerns about a bubble in the neocloud sector, saying, “There has been some double counting of demand.” Asked whether demand for AI, memory chips, and data centers could level off or grow more slowly over the next five to ten years, he replied, “There are ups and downs in the short term.” “OpenAI and Anthropic are the only two companies really driving substantial growth in demand, so we could see a supply shock and a period of turbulence,” Altman said.