Sam Altman’s Vision: Investments in AI, Energy, Health, Computing Power, and Wealth Distribution

This article is inspired by the reflections shared by Marco Trombetti in episode 5 of the Podcast “L’altro Zio Sam” from Il Sole 24 Ore. In this episode, Trombetti explores Sam Altman’s strategic thinking, analyzing it not only through his statements but also by connecting the dots of his key investments, from artificial intelligence to energy, offering a comprehensive look at the future vision of the OpenAI founder.

Marco Trombetti speaks of Sam Altman not just as a visionary entrepreneur, but as a strategist capable of planning investments in an integrated manner. If you look at his moves, it’s not just about pushing artificial intelligence to its limits, but also about considering what this technology requires to thrive: energy.

The insight that emerges from this approach is clear: the future will demand an ever-increasing amount of energy. Those who control energy sources will have the power to generate wealth in a world increasingly dependent on electricity and computational power. If energy production cannot keep pace, energy prices will skyrocket. This scenario leads to the prediction of fierce competition for energy, with skyrocketing prices and ever-growing demand.

The First Step: Investing in Energy

Sam Altman is aware of this and has already begun to invest in strategic sectors. One of his most important investments concerns nuclear fusion, a technology considered the Holy Grail of clean energy. Altman is Chairman of the Board of Helion Energy, a startup in which he invested $375 million, which promises to deliver a fusion power plant by 2028. This is an extremely ambitious timeline, which has drawn skepticism from scientists, who accuse the company of lacking transparency about its progress.

Nuclear fusion represents a revolutionary step, as unlike fission, it does not produce long-term waste. While other companies are working on similar solutions, Helion aims to be the first to market, promising to radically change the global energy landscape.

The Second Step: Wealth Redistribution

Altman doesn’t stop at energy. He is aware that artificial intelligence will generate immense wealth, but it could also replace human labor, causing inequality. He is therefore among the advocates of universal income alongside prominent figures like Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey (of Twitter), and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. The real fear is not that machines will replace us in work, but that they will deprive us of our wealth and our sense of purpose and reason for being: “What is the contribution I make to humanity?”.

Altman, rightly, sees work not just as an economic value, but also a psychological one. His goal is to ensure that, despite technology, wealth is distributed fairly. Hence the creation of World Coin, a cryptocurrency based on a biometric identification system, designed to reduce the risk of losing crypto wallets and ensure that wealth produced by machines is redistributed. To this end, he has raised $115 million in investments with the goal of scanning every individual’s iris, linking biometric data to a secure crypto wallet. This system, in addition to facilitating income redistribution, would also allow distinguishing humans from non-humans in a future where this distinction might become more difficult.
Altman, in practice, is creating the necessary tools to redistribute wealth when it is produced in such abundance.

The Third Step: Health and Longevity

Altman is also looking at the future of humanity. He has invested $180 million in Retro Biosciences, a company aiming to extend human life through cell reprogramming. The goal is to extend the average lifespan by ten years, an achievement that, if realized, could have a massive social and economic impact.

Additionally, Altman, through the OpenAI Startup Fund, has collaborated with Thrive Global to create Thrive AI Health, an AI-powered health coaching platform. The goal is to make wellness advice accessible and promote healthy lifestyles, contributing to longevity.

The Fourth Step: Computing Power

Altman knows that AI requires enormous computing power, and for this reason, he has invested in the chip sector as well. He is working to fund the creation of a new generation of more powerful and efficient processors capable of supporting the massive growth of artificial intelligence.

Confirmations from Sam Altman’s Post

In his latest post, published yesterday, September 23rd, on his blog, he confirms what we have deduced, emphasizing the need for more energy availability:

[…] Technology brought us from the Stone Age to the Agricultural Age and then to the Industrial Age. From here, the path to the Intelligence Age is paved with compute, energy, and human will.

and more chips, as well as sufficient infrastructure:

[…] If we want to put AI into the hands of as many people as possible, we need to drive down the cost of compute and make it abundant (which requires lots of energy and chips). If we don’t build enough infrastructure, AI will be a very limited resource that wars get fought over and that becomes mostly a tool for rich people.

Finally, he admits that risks exist, but the stakes are too high to turn back:

[…] We need to act wisely but with conviction. The dawn of the Intelligence Age is a momentous development with very complex and extremely high-stakes challenges. It will not be an entirely positive story, but the upside is so tremendous that we owe it to ourselves, and the future, to figure out how to navigate the risks in front of us.

Conclusions

Sam Altman is not just investing in the future: he is trying to control it. With his strategic approach, he aims to dominate every stage of the production chain, from the energy needed to power AI, to the redistribution of the wealth produced and the health of the people who will benefit from this new technological order. In short, Sam Altman wants to gain control over all production stages, from energy to wealth.

This approach is reminiscent of William Randolph Hearst, the famous publisher (also made famous by Orson Welles’ film Citizen Kane), who, through vertical integration, controlled every phase of his newspapers’ production. He didn’t just manage the editorial process but dominated the entire supply chain: from forests to paper mills, to distribution networks, and printing presses. This strategy not only lowered operating costs but also gave him greater control over the quality and availability of paper, a crucial factor for daily printing. Today, more than a century later, Altman is trying to apply the same model, but in the field of artificial intelligence.

Thus, Sam Altman, on one hand, is trying to develop AGI, or Artificial General Intelligence, with the goal of generating wealth and creating a parallel workforce to humans, while on the other, he is making a series of strategic and targeted investments to support this vision, moving far ahead to build an ecosystem where he controls energy, intelligence, and wealth. If realized, this vertical integration could give him unprecedented influence over the future of humanity, making him one of the key players in shaping our technological and social destiny.

Originally published at Levysoft.