OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will be at Intel's next foundry event — and he's currently looking for chip partners

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is set to participate in Intel's foundry event in late Feb. Altman, who is reportedly in talks to start a new chip venture, will discuss the importance that semiconductors play in the modern world both in general and in artificial intelligence (AI) applications in particular.

"Thrilled Sam Altman is joining me at Direct Connect on Feb 21," Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday. "Sam Altman is a renowned leader on #AI and its impact on world. Looking forward to discussing the role semis play in enabling modern society. Infinite possibilities ahead in the age of AI & no better convo for Intel's first foundry event. See you soon Sam!"

Intel and its Intel Foundry Services division will discuss the company's process technology roadmap beyond the Intel 18A (1.8nm-class) production node at the upcoming Direct Connect event.

Altman is reportedly building his own AI processor company, which will develop its own hardware to address shortages of Nvidia's AI and HPC GPUs. A Financial Times report claims that Altman is currently in talks with Middle Eastern investors to finance his chip venture. Altman also reportedly met with executives from TSMC in Taiwan, as well as representatives from Samsung Foundry in Seoul, potentially to discuss chip manufacturing. According to Bloomberg, Altman also met with Samsung's DRAM and LSI divisions, representatives from SK hynix, and executives from SK Group.

Assuming Altman is indeed going to build an AI processor, he needs contract makers of chips with leading edge process technologies, such as Intel Foundry Services, Samsung Foundry, and TSMC. It makes sense for the head of OpenAI to talk to all foundries and (perhaps) get a better manufacturing deal.

Speaking at an IFS event may demonstrate that Altman has a close relationship with Intel, but whether Intel and OpenAI are already working on something together remains to be seen. Regardless, Intel and IFS are certainly looking forward to landing orders from large, growing datacenter companies such as OpenAI.