Is OpenAI becoming too big to fail?

Sam Altman’s ability to intertwine the startup throughout major tech players puts it at the nexus of a vital part of the U.S. economy

- Tim Higgins [e-mail]

Slowly then all at once, OpenAI became something of a juggernaut that’s hard to fully fathom.

It hasn’t yet turned a profit. Its annual revenue is 2% of Amazon.com’s sales. Its future is uncertain beyond the hope of ushering in a godlike artificial intelligence that might help cure cancer and transform work and life as we know it. Still, it is brimming with hope and excitement.

But what if OpenAI fails?

There's real concern that through many complicated and murky tech deals aimed at bolstering OpenAI's finances, the startup has become too big to fail.

Or, put another way, if the hype and hope around Chief Executive Sam Altman’s vision of the Al future fails to materialize, it could create systemic risk to the part of the U.S. economy likely keeping us out of recession.

That's rarefied air, especially for a startup. Few worried about what would happen if Pets.com failed in the dotcom boom.

We saw in 2008-09 with the bank rescues and the Chrysler and General Motors bailouts what happens in the U.S. when certain companies become too big to fail.

Altman—by design or happenstance—has engineered OpendAIs rise to a $500 billion valuation just as the Trump administration has embraced its own policies of picking champions in the name of national defense and economic security.

The White House has been very vocal in efforts to protect AI development in the US., which is helping fuel what otherwise would be a much slower economy. More than that, some are betting that Al and robotics will be the salve to our nation’s debt troubles.