Altman’s three AI endgames: an inspector, a merger, or melted GPUs

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has sketched three futures for advanced AI, including oversight by a nuclear-watchdog-style international inspector, consolidation of the leading labs into one merger, or a dominant company capable of shutting down competitors by disabling their GPUs. Altman had previously backed an IAEA-style inspector in OpenAI’s 2023 governance essay, and OpenAI, Google and Anthropic are helping launch the Standards Authority for Frontier AI, a self-regulator without government oversight, planned for late 2026 or early 2027. A federal antitrust lawsuit filed in September in California accuses Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google of illegally agreeing to slow AI development. OpenAI is seeking a roughly $30 billion round that could value it above $1.4 trillion before Anthropic’s expected mid-November IPO.