A recent letter from OpenAI sheds light on how the company hopes the federal government can assist its ambitious plans for building data centers.
The letter — penned by OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer, Chris Lehane, and directed to Michael Kratsios, the White House’s director of science and technology policy — argues for the expansion of the Advanced Manufacturing Investment Credit (AMIC) to include components for the electrical grid, AI servers, and AI data centers, rather than limiting it solely to semiconductor fabrication.
The AMIC offers a 35% tax credit, a part of the Biden administration’s Chips Act.
Lehane noted, “Expanding the coverage of the AMIC will lower the effective cost of capital, reduce risks for early investment, and unlock private funding to help ease bottlenecks and speed up the AI infrastructure development in the US.”
Additionally, OpenAI urged the government to speed up the permitting and environmental review processes for these projects and to establish a strategic reserve of essential raw materials — including copper, aluminum, and processed rare earth minerals — necessary for AI infrastructure.
Although the company initially released the letter on October 27, it gained more attention this week when OpenAI executives made comments that sparked broader discussions about the company’s proposals.
During a Wall Street Journal event on Wednesday, CFO Sarah Friar suggested that the government should “backstop” OpenAI’s infrastructure loans. However, she later clarified on LinkedIn that she misspoke: “OpenAI is not seeking a government backstop for our infrastructure commitments. I used the word ‘backstop’ and it muddied the point.”
CEO Sam Altman also shared his thoughts, stating that OpenAI does not want government guarantees for its data centers. “We believe that governments should not pick winners or losers, and taxpayers shouldn’t bail out companies that make poor business decisions or fail in the market,” he mentioned, while noting that the company has talked about loan guarantees in relation to supporting the development of semiconductor fabrication facilities in the US.
In the same post, Altman projected that OpenAI expects to exceed a $20 billion annualized revenue run rate by the end of 2025 and anticipates growth into the hundreds of billions by 2030. He also mentioned that OpenAI has made $1.4 trillion in capital commitments over the next eight years.
