Altman on OpenAI: Compute Power is the Biggest Revenue Bottleneck – Double the Compute, Double the Revenue

Deep News13:22

As the AI race intensifies, market focus has shifted from model superiority to monetization. In a rare interview on the *Big Technology Podcast*, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman outlined the company’s strategic pivot from a "phenomenal product company" to an "enterprise AI platform."

**ChatGPT’s Evolution: Beyond the Chatbox** Altman admitted he initially underestimated ChatGPT’s generic interface but emphasized its future as an active "intelligent agent" generating task-specific interfaces. OpenAI’s broader vision includes browsers, devices, and agents to become the "default intelligence layer." Memory capabilities, currently primitive, will evolve to retain user preferences and habits—a game-changer for AI assistants.

**Enterprise API Outpaces Consumer Growth** OpenAI now serves over 1 million businesses, with API growth surpassing ChatGPT’s consumer adoption. Altman stressed enterprises need unified AI platforms, not fragmented tools. He envisions coexisting "traditional cloud" and "AI cloud" infrastructures, with OpenAI focusing on trillion-token-scale intelligence layers rather than replicating AWS.

**GPT-6? Names Don’t Matter, Upgrades Do** While avoiding a GPT-6 timeline, Altman confirmed a major model upgrade in Q1 2025, surpassing GPT-5.2’s capabilities. Hardware-wise, OpenAI plans a suite of compact AI devices, anticipating a shift from passive tools to context-aware, proactive systems.

**Compute: The Revenue Multiplier** Altman dismissed concerns about AI "overcapacity," arguing compute power is the bottleneck between potential and realized revenue. OpenAI’s compute capacity tripled in a year, driving proportional revenue growth. "If we had double the compute, revenue would nearly double," he stated. The real risk? Infrastructure lagging behind societal AI adoption.

**Competition: From Models to Platforms** Despite rivals like Gemini and DeepSeek, Altman sees OpenAI’s edge in productization and distribution. ChatGPT’s 900M weekly active users reinforce its dominance as the lowest-barrier AI gateway.

**Science & Enterprise: Next Frontiers** Altman highlighted AI’s untapped potential in science (e.g., GPT-5.2 aiding mathematical proofs) and enterprise verticals like finance and healthcare. The GDP-Val metric shows AI now matches or outperforms humans in 74% of expert-level knowledge tasks.

**IPO? "0% Excited to Be a Public CEO"** OpenAI may eventually go public but prioritizes capital for compute expansion. Altman dismissed short-term profitability concerns, betting on steep revenue growth to offset training costs.

**AGI Debate: "Superintelligence" is the New Frontier** While GPT-5.2 exhibits near-human IQ (147+), Altman argued true AGI requires autonomous learning. He proposed redefining milestones around "superintelligence"—systems outperforming top human roles.

*Hardware teaser*: OpenAI’s upcoming devices will ditch screens/keyboards for proactive, context-aware interaction—a "fundamental shift" from today’s passive computing.

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