OpenAI is eyeing the Asia-Pacific for future data center sites, joining an already heated race to build out AI infrastructure in the region, according to Bloomberg News. The ChatGPT-maker’s Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon will visit the region next week to meet with government officials and potential private-sector partners to discuss AI infrastructure and OpenAI software use, according to OpenAI’s website. Kwon will visit countries including Japan, South Korea, Australia, India and Singapore, Bloomberg News reported citing unnamed sources.
The Asia-Pacific is home to more data centers than any other region worldwide, with major capacity expansion plans by Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc.
The tour comes shortly after OpenAI secured a deal to partner with the United Arab Emirates to help develop a massive data center project in Abu Dhabi, called Stargate UAE. It is the first international deployment of Stargate, OpenAI’s AI infrastructure platform. “Stargate represents our long-term vision for building frontier-scale compute capacity around the world in service of safe, secure, and broadly beneficial AGI,” states OpenAI in its website. Stargate UAE has the potential to provide AI infrastructure and compute capacity within a 2,000-mile radius, reaching up to half the world’s population.
Stargate UAE is also the first partnership under OpenAI for Countries, OpenAI’s new global initiative to help interested governments build sovereign AI capability in coordination with the U.S. government. The agreement includes parties like OpenAI’s partners G42, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco, and SoftBank. OpenAI for Countries seeks to partner with governments to build AI capabilities rooted in democratic values and open markets. The startup will also help countries customize OpenAI products for local languages and needs, and plans to first focus on 10 partnerships across regions.
The plan is not without its detractors including those in Washington who are concerned about the sharing of bleeding-edge hardware and technology abroad, particularly in countries like the UAE that have strong ties to China. The US and UAE governments are discussing the details of an AI agreement that includes measures concerning China.
OpenAI has claimed that more than 30 countries have reached out to them to discuss partnerships. In response to these interested governments, the startup will, in coordination with the US government:
- Partner with countries to help build in-country data center capacity. These secure data centers will help support the sovereignty of a country’s data, build new local industries, and make it easy to customize AI and leverage their data in a private and compliant way.
- Provide customized ChatGPT to citizens. This will help deliver improved healthcare and education, more efficient public services, and more. This will be AI of, by, and for the needs of each particular country, localized in their language and for their culture and respecting future global standards.
- Continue evolving security and safety controls for AI models. As the AI models become more powerful, OpenAI will continue to make investments in the processes and controls, including the data center and physical security needed to deploy, operate and protect them.
- Together, raise and deploy a national start-up fund. With local as well as OpenAI capital, they will seed healthy national AI ecosystems so the new infrastructure is creating new jobs, new companies, new revenue, and new communities for each country while also supporting existing public- and private-sector needs.
- Partner countries also would invest in expanding the global Stargate Project—and thus in continued US-led AI leadership and a global, growing network effect for democratic AI. “The initiative includes commitments from partner nations to invest in expanding our Stargate project here in the U.S.,” its website elaborated.