OpenAI’s Compute Chief: We Can’t Build Fast Enough | Sachin Katti

**Sachin Katti** (0:00)
Any time we have thought we have enough compute, we can slow down. All the ways negatively surprise us, like, oh, we should not have slowed down. Demand far outstrips compute supply today. So anything we can bring online, we consume immediately. Our biggest worry is that still, at the scale at which we are trying to get compute and build compute, the physical world does not move that fast. We do believe that the world of recursion is not that far, where AI will design the systems it needs to train and run the next generation of AI, including us.

**Matt Turck** (0:30)
Hi, I'm Matt Turck. Welcome to The MAD Podcast. My guest today is Sachin Katti, who holds what might be the most fascinating and relevant title in tech right now, head of industrial compute at OpenAI. Sachin has an incredible background. He was a professor at Stanford, a multi-time founder, and most recently the CTO at Intel. Now, he's leading what many are calling the largest infrastructure build out in human history. In this episode, we step away from the model layer and dive deep into compute and the physical reality of the AI boom. We talk about the staggering scale of the data centers being built. We get into the weeds on liquid-cooled supercomputers, power grid constraints, the potential of nuclear energy, and OpenAI's move into custom silicon with Jalapeno. We also discuss the broader Stargate strategy and the slightly sapphire reality that AI is now beginning to help design its own chips. It is a fantastic look behind the curtain at what it actually takes to power the future of intelligence. Please enjoy my conversation with Sachin Katti.
All right, Sachin, welcome, excited to do this. We are recording this on the sidelines of the race conference in Paris.

**Matt Turck** (1:37)
So thank you for braving the heat. It's another heat wave here.

**Sachin Katti** (1:42)
Thank you. Great to be here.

**Matt Turck** (1:44)
To start, some people describe what's currently happening in the world of compute data centers as the largest infrastructure build out in history, bigger than the highway, bigger than the railroads.
I'm curious, one, if you agree, and two, what it feels like from the inside. How do you view what you're currently building at OpenAI?

**Sachin Katti** (2:12)
It definitely feels like one of the largest things humanity has ever built effectively. Definitely bigger than many of the things that I've heard of. I'm not old enough to have experienced the highway build out, but no, it feels exactly like what it's on. It's on in the belly of the beast, so to speak.
Every day is we are making decisions, we compute that historically from our previous role, for example, at Intel, we probably take months to make, given the magnitude of those decisions. But the demand is so insatiable that, and it is growing so rapidly that we have to move very quickly. So it's an intense time, but it's probably the most exciting thing an engineer would want to be part of.

**Matt Turck** (3:04)
Yeah, and I read somewhere that OpenAI was planning on spending about 50 billion in compute this year. Is that still the rough number directionally?

**Sachin Katti** (3:15)
Actually, that sounds about right.

**Matt Turck** (3:17)
Yeah, and the whole industry itself was going to be 700 billion in compute spending this year as well, so like insane numbers, it seems.

**Sachin Katti** (3:29)
Yeah, and it's probably continuing to grow, right? And a lot of build happening, so a lot of that is also going to translate to compute usage from people like us in a year or two.

**Matt Turck** (3:41)
Is the right way to think about this that for OpenAI, it's a bit of a new world, right? So obviously not quite a pivot because obviously the whole AI research is going full speed ahead, but like building a whole new business within the company, is that fair? Is that how people think about it? Because obviously building models is one thing, building data centers, it's a whole different world.

**Sachin Katti** (4:07)
Yeah, I think OpenAI has always had a fundamental belief that computers are the foundation of everything, right? Computer is the foundation for intelligence. And the way we keep continuing to scale intelligence and distribute intelligence is by having compute. And so that has never been different, and it's never always been the belief. I think what's becoming clear is to build the kind of compute we need and at the scale.
We have to not just rely on getting compute from our partners, we increasingly have to take a much more active role in building and getting that compute that we need. So it does absolutely feel like a new muscle that we're building in the company.