OpenAI asked Trump administration to expand Chips Act tax credit to cover data centers
A recent letter from OpenAI reveals more details about how the company hopes the federal government can support the company’s ambitious plans to build data centers.
The letter – from OpenAI’s Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane and addressed to White House Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios – argued that the administration should consider expanding its activities. the investment credit for advanced production (AMIC) that goes beyond semiconductor manufacturing to include power grid components, AI servers and AI data centers.
The AMIC does a tax benefit of 35% that was included in the Biden administration’s Chips Act.
“Broadening AMIC coverage will lower the effective cost of capital, reduce early-stage investment risk, and unlock private capital to help alleviate bottlenecks and accelerate AI buildout in the US,” Lehane wrote.
OpenAI’s letter also called on the government to accelerate the permitting and environmental review process for these projects and create a strategic reserve of raw materials – such as copper, aluminum and processed rare earth minerals – needed to build AI infrastructure.
The company first published his letter on Oct. 27, but it didn’t get much press attention until this week, when comments from OpenAI executives sparked a broader discussion about what the company wants from the Trump administration.
At a Wall Street Journal event on Wednesday, CFO Sarah Friar said the government should “backstop” OpenAI’s infrastructure loans, although they would later posted on LinkedIn that she was mistaken: “OpenAI is not looking for a government backstop for our infrastructure obligations. I used the word ‘backstop’ and that obscured the point.”
CEO Sam Altman also weighed in, writing that OpenAI “does not have or want any government guarantees for OpenAI data centers.”
“We believe that governments should not pick winners or losers, and that taxpayers should not bail out companies that make poor business decisions or otherwise lose in the marketplace,” he wrote, although he said the company had discussed loan guarantees “as part of supporting the buildout of semiconductor factories in the U.S.”
In the same post, Altman wrote that the company expects to “achieve more than $20 billion in annual revenue by the end of 2025 and grow to hundreds of billions by 2030,” and he said OpenAI has made $1.4 trillion in capital commitments over the next eight years.
