Sam Altman's trillion-dollar plan for OpenAI beyond GPT-5

PLUS: Arm pivots to challenge Nvidia and a CEO fires 80% of staff over AI adoption

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August 19, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

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OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman revealed that models beyond GPT-5 already exist, but they are currently held back by one major bottleneck: a massive shortage of compute.

The company is now outlining a trillion-dollar plan to build the necessary infrastructure to power them. This aggressive push to solve AI's biggest constraint raises the question of how quickly the industry will be transformed by what comes next.

Today in AI:

  • OpenAI’s trillion-dollar plan for post-GPT-5 models

  • A CEO fires 80% of staff over AI adoption

  • GPT-5 surpasses doctors in medical diagnostics

  • Arm’s new strategy to challenge Nvidia in AI chips

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What’s new? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that models more advanced than GPT-5 exist but are held back by compute constraints. He also outlined a future roadmap that includes spending trillions on data centers to power what's next.

What matters?

  • Altman revealed that OpenAI possesses models more powerful than GPT-5 but cannot release them due to current compute limitations.

  • To overcome this, he says the company will spend 'trillions' on data centers, calling AI investments justified despite 'insane' valuations.

  • He also teased saying “Listen, we’re going to ship a device that is going to be so beautiful” calling it a 'new computing paradigm,' and also suggested OpenAI might bid on Google Chrome if it's sold.

Why it matters?

These plans signal OpenAI is moving aggressively to solve the biggest bottleneck in AI progress: the availability of raw computing power. This massive infrastructure investment could accelerate the arrival of next-generation AI, impacting everything from consumer devices to enterprise applications.

What’s new? A new survey reveals a growing 'shadow AI workforce' as employees personally fund their AI tools, while one CEO took the extreme measure of laying off nearly 80% of his staff for refusing to adopt an AI-first culture.

What matters?

  • A recent survey found nearly 30% of employees are paying for their own AI tools at work, largely because half report receiving little to no training from their employers.

  • In response to resistance, IgniteTech CEO Eric Vaughan replaced most of his staff, enforced mandatory "AI Mondays," and saw the rebuilt company launch new AI products and complete a major acquisition.

  • This friction isn't isolated, as broader research shows one in three workers have actively sabotaged their company's AI rollout, often due to poor tools or unclear strategy from leadership.

Why it matters?

The push for AI integration is creating a major cultural clash in the workplace. The most successful organizations will be those that effectively bridge top-down strategy with bottom-up adoption to unlock productivity without provoking widespread resistance.

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Everything else in AI

Google found in a new survey that nearly 90% of game developers are now using AI agents for tasks like coding, testing, and creating more dynamic non-player characters.

Goldman Sachs forecasted that AI will temporarily displace 6-7% of jobs but ultimately create new roles, primarily by compressing tasks within existing jobs rather than eliminating them entirely.

GPT-5's Medical Milestone - A new study from Emory University reveals that OpenAI's GPT-5 now surpasses human medical professionals in diagnostic reasoning and accuracy.

Meta plans to debut its 'Hypernova' smart glasses for under $1,000, a significant price cut intended to make the AI-powered AR headset more accessible to consumers.

ARM In a major strategic pivot, chip designer Arm is moving to build its own silicon, bolstering its ambitions by hiring one of the key directors behind Amazon's custom AI chips.

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