OpenAI CEO on AI Spending: A Fair Criticism

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently addressed investor concerns about whether massive AI spending will pay off. He called it "the fairest criticism" of AI today, noting many companies waste resources on infrastructure and chips without clear revenue. Altman expects the industry to find solutions soon.

Cloud optimization firm Cast AI found that GPU utilization averages just 5% across thousands of companies, meaning 95% of processing power sits idle. Co-founder Laurent Gil says firms hoard scarce AI chips out of fear of missing out, not actual need.

NYU professor Gary Marcus calls the AI capital spending plans by Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta "the biggest capital misallocation in history." Their combined monthly investments now exceed the total cost of the Manhattan Project, with no proven return yet.