Can OpenAI keep pace with industry’s soaring costs?

Altman believes the revenue will come from paid-for versions of ChatGPT, other companies using its data centres and people buying the hardware devices it is building. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

It is the $1.4tn (£1.1tn) question. How can a loss-making startup such as OpenAI afford such a staggering spending commitment?

Answer that positively and it will go a long way to easing investor concerns over bubble warnings in the artificial intelligence boom, from lofty tech company valuations to a mooted $3tn global spend on datacentres.