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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
OpenAI wants to help countries develop their own AI capabilities. But can they afford it?
The rise of AI is a tale of haves and have-nots. The power-hungry sector demands near-endless resources, from computing power to engineering talent, meaning top companies are mostly restricted to being based in the world's superpowers. OpenAI, the most valuable startup operating in the space, wants to change that, announcing a new initiative to help other countries build out their own AI infrastructure. Speaking on Wednesday at Fortune's ASEAN-GCC Economic Forum in Malaysia, OpenAI chief strategy officer Jason Kwon argued that his company's ambitious program will help countries determine their own future in the booming industry, even as the cost to create home-grown competitors remains prohibitive for most nations. 'Infrastructure is destiny,' Kwon said on a panel. He pointed at OpenAI's first pilot for the program, in the United Arab Emirates. Though hardly a cash-strapped country, the UAE still pales in size compared to the U.S. and China, and OpenAI's partnership represents its first international deployment of its Stargate platform, which will aim to direct hundreds of billions of dollars into infrastructure development. Kiril Evtimov, the chief technology officer of the leading UAE AI company G42, joined Kwon onstage in Malaysia, arguing that countries will have to be inventive to achieve technological autonomy, such as relying on open-source models for specific use cases, like embedding AI into government services, when other costs grow too prohibitive. 'Technically, this is probably as sovereign as it will get,' Evtimov said. 'It's always about balance.' Headquartered in California, OpenAI has amassed a staggering—and unprecedented—amount of funding for a private company, closing its latest round in March, valuing the ChatGPT developer at $300 billion. But even as the company swells, its CEO, Sam Altman, continues to hammer its mission of creating AI for all—which includes non-U.S. countries, even as geopolitical tensions simmer. Speaking on Wednesday's panel, Kwon argued that OpenAI aims to work individually with countries depending on their own needs, even if they cannot afford to build out multi-billion-dollar data centers like the UAE. 'It's not just about having capital,' he said. 'We'll provide the engine, and they're going to be providing the steering.' While the growing isolationist strain in Washington, led by President Trump, could dissuade some countries from working with U.S.-based tech firms, Kwon said that OpenAI's job is to listen to what they want to achieve, including localizing models. In the company's release announcing the initiative last week, it cited potential examples like providing customized ChatGPT to citizens that can deliver healthcare services and helping to raise and deploy a national startup fund. Still, OpenAI's move to help develop infrastructure, especially in the Middle East and with support from the Trump administration, has drawn criticism from some China hawks who have raised national security concerns. Trump's AI and crypto czar, David Sacks, pushed back in an X post earlier this month, calling the investment 'hugely beneficial for the United States.' With OpenAI quickly becoming one of the world's largest and most influential tech companies, its scope continues to grow, especially with last week's announcement of its $6.5 billion acquisition of legendary Apple designer Jony Ive's startup to build AI-native hardware devices. Kwon said that OpenAI's decision was rooted in its belief that AI is shifting how humans will interact with computers, necessitating new modes of communication. 'We need to be a full-stack competitor,' he said. This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Malaysia will work with both the U.S. and China in developing AI, says top minister
Malaysia won't pick between the U.S. and China as the two superpowers drift further apart in the global geopolitical landscape, according to the country's minister of home affairs. 'For a country like Malaysia, our practical solution or practical position now is that we do not need to choose sides,' Saifuddin Nasution bin Ismail said during Fortune's ASEAN-GCC Economic Forum in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. 'Instead, we have chosen to work with both.' The comments came as leaders from the intergovernmental Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met for their annual meeting in Kuala Lumpur. As chair of ASEAN, it was Malaysia's turn to host the summit, which focused on international collaboration between the 10 member nations. In the days following the ASEAN Summit, the Southeast Asian leaders met with additional policymakers from the Gulf Cooperation Council and China as part of trilateral discussions. The representatives touched on major topics including artificial intelligence, the renewable energy transition, and the changing global world order. The latter drew particular focus after the U.S.'s disengagement from global trade in the wake of President Donald Trump's tariffs and the rising tensions between the U.S. and China. That leaves countries like Malaysia caught in the middle as they look for capital investment and access to cutting-edge technology, including AI infrastructure. 'I believe that [working with both China and the U.S.] brought us real benefits, and this means we can bring the most relevant, affordable, and effective AI tools into our country,' Saifuddin said. 'We choose what is best for Malaysia based on our needs. This balanced approach gives us more room to negotiate, to innovate, and to protect our own national interests.' Saifuddin added that Malaysia wanted to work with both the U.S. and China because it did not want to close itself off from sources of knowledge sharing and new technology that it does not yet have the ability to develop on its own. 'Our open door policy means our young people can train in Silicon Valley or in Shenzhen, and our companies can learn from both the American and Chinese AI ecosystem,' Saifuddin said. 'I think those are the clear benefits of taking a position like ours.' The recent tariff spat between the U.S. and China accelerated a decoupling that had been in full swing since the two cemented themselves as the world's leading AI powers. In the past few years, the U.S. has limited the export of the most advanced semiconductor chips to China, while Beijing enacted similar export controls on certain rare minerals key to the production of chips. Both countries' governments have regularly pointed to a brewing AI arms race with the other. Such an openly confrontational approach between superpowers could erode in the world of AI, according to Keyu Jin, economics professor at the London School of Economics and author of the book The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism. 'I think a lot of this idea of dominance and winning is really part of the old playbook,' Jin said. 'Really, no one wins from this kind of competition in this new age of networks and the new age of connectivity.' Both the U.S. and China often cite national security as the reason for the schism. U.S. officials are concerned about the level of influence the Chinese government exerts over its domestic tech companies. Meanwhile, China is trying to wean itself off a reliance on advanced chips from the U.S. after the export controls went into effect. National security concerns should not be the only considerations determining the extent of global AI collaboration, Jin said. 'We need to be realistic that there are security concerns that both countries have to accept vis‑a‑vis others,' Jin said. 'That is just the geopolitical reality. But that's not the only reality in the world. It's easy to conflate these issues: technology and national security. It's very easy to use it as an excuse to shun competition, which I don't think is a good thing.' Many of the countries in attendance in the ASEAN and GCC blocs have ties with both the U.S. and China. They are usually reluctant to pick sides because they do not want to be seen as favoring one superpower over the other. 'Trade and investment with non‑aligned countries has shot up, whether it's between China and them, [or] the U.S. led with them,' Jin said. 'These countries play a very critical role. So we can't cast the world as black and white.' This story was originally featured on
