Sam Altman says AI will eventually be sold like electricity and water — by companies like OpenAI

In an intriguing forecast, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, predicts that artificial intelligence may someday be treated as a basic utility, akin to electricity and water. Speaking at the BlackRock Infrastructure Summit in Washington, DC, Altman emphasized the shift towards a model where AI services are metered and sold based on usage. He elaborated on the concept, suggesting that tech companies like OpenAI are working to create a future where intelligence can be accessed on-demand. "Fundamentally our business and I think the business of every other model provider is going to look like selling tokens," Altman explained, highlighting how AI systems process and price data inputs and outputs. As demand for AI continues to grow, compute capacity—the processing power essential for training and operating AI models—will become increasingly critical. Altman noted that if OpenAI cannot expand its compute capacity to meet this rising demand, it could lead to either a halt in sales or skyrocketing prices, potentially limiting access to wealthier clients or prompting governmental intervention in distribution. Industry giants are gearing up to invest hundreds of billions in compute infrastructure this year to satisfy the escalating demand. AMD CEO Lisa Su pointed out during her CES 2026 keynote that the world will require over "10 yottaflops" of computing power in the next five years—an amount that dwarfs the global AI capacity recorded in 2022. However, the path to this ambitious expansion is fraught with challenges. AI data centers consume electricity levels comparable to those of small cities, and the current strain on the US power grid—coupled with equipment shortages and slow permitting processes—could pose significant obstacles. Elon Musk, in a recent podcast, even suggested that electricity generation could be the limiting factor in scaling AI, with China potentially overtaking the US due to its quicker energy infrastructure developments. Within tech companies, access to compute resources is becoming highly competitive, with engineers vying for GPU availability. Interestingly, some job candidates are now inquiring about AI compute budgets alongside traditional compensation discussions. OpenAI President Greg Brockman mentioned that the company has committed around $1.4 trillion towards data center projects over the next eight years, aiming to stay ahead in this rapidly evolving landscape. Altman concluded by expressing a desire to transition towards a future with fewer constraints on capacity.