AI and electric vehicles will determine the success or failure of the future industry… This is a field that big names such as Altman and Musk are interested in.

Sam Altman, founder of ‘OpenAI’, which developed ChatGPT, invested in a solar power startup. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 21st that Altman was among those who invested $20 million (about 27.6 billion won) in solar energy startup ExoWatt. This company has developed technology to convert solar energy into heat and store it, and its ultimate goal is to supply electricity at about 1 cent per kilowatt hour (kWh). This is not Altman’s first time investing in the energy industry. In 2021, about $375 million was invested in Helion, a nuclear fusion power generation startup called ‘future energy’ and ‘artificial sun’. Recently, it is also directly pursuing the listing of Oklo, a small module nuclear power plant (SMR) developer that it invested in in 2013.

Altman’s interest in energy companies is in preparation for the exponential increase in electricity demand as artificial intelligence (AI) develops. Large-scale data centers are essential for AI, and enormous amounts of electricity are required to drive AI semiconductors and cool down the heat generated. In addition to Altman, famous founders in Silicon Valley, including Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos, are steadily investing in solar power or nuclear power plants.

The reason they are interested in the energy industry is clear. This is because they realize that the success of future industries such as AI and electric vehicles depends on the stable supply of eco-friendly electricity. Daniel Golding, a former data center executive at Google, warned the Financial Times, “The limits of the AI ​​industry depend on building data centers and securing power,” and added, “At some point, power issues could become an obstacle to AI development.”

Helion, in which Altman invested, signed an electricity supply contract with Microsoft (MS) last year. Helion must supply at least 50 megawatts (㎿) of electricity to MS every year through nuclear fusion power generation starting in 2028. This is the amount of electricity that approximately 100,000 households can use for one year. Until now, electricity produced through nuclear fusion power has never been commercialized.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has been obsessed with SMR for a long time. Since 2008, an SMR company called Terra Power has been established and has been pursuing nuclear reactor development. It is called a ‘dream nuclear power plant’ because it uses liquid sodium, which is heavier than water, as a coolant, and waste fuel rods from nuclear power plants can be reused as fuel. Terra Power is showing confidence in commercialization, saying, “We will introduce innovative sodium reactors in Korea after 2030.” Solar power startup Heliogen and nuclear fusion startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) are also on Bill Gates’ investment list.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos invested in Canadian startup ‘General Fusion’. The company plans to build a nuclear fusion demonstration facility in Column, Oxfordshire, England, and produce electricity as early as next year. PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel invested in Helion along with Altman.

Recently, there has been growing concern among big tech and AI development company founders about future power shortages. At the Davos Forum held earlier this year, Altman said, “Future AI will use much more power than people expected.” Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who warned that “the bottleneck in AI development will come from a lack of electricity,” acquired the solar energy company Solar City (now Tesla Energy) 10 years ago.