The CEOs of Broadcom and Intel have identified the main challenge facing AI development. It is not a chip shortage.
The high cost of capital and uncertainty about returns on investment could become a bigger problem than the chip shortage, say executives at Broadcom and Intel
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Access to capital could become a more serious obstacle to the development of artificial intelligence than a shortage of chips, memory, or electricity, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said at the DBS Asia Future Forward conference in Singapore, according to CNBC. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan also expressed concern about funding for AI infrastructure at the event, the network reported.
Details
“I think capital could be the most serious constraint [on AI development],” said Hock Tan. The CEO of Intel echoed his concerns on this matter. He pointed to the rising cost of capital and investors’ doubts about whether large-scale investments in AI would yield sufficient returns: “If there are any challenges in the early stages [of AI development], they are capital and the cost of capital; and in the long term, people want to see a return on their investment,” he said.
What other issues did the company executives highlight?
According to Hock Tan, the industry has repeatedly faced supply chain issues over the past two years, but he expects that as production capacity expands, some of these constraints will ease. “Over the past two years, we’ve seen a series of bottlenecks arise one after another, but we’ve managed to overcome them,” he noted. “The memory shortages we’re seeing today may no longer exist a year from now.”
He suggested that the shortage of silicon wafers could be resolved by 2028 or 2029, and that the power supply situation would improve as new infrastructure comes online.
This article is being updated
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
