Further insights into OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s global fundraising effort for a multi-billion dollar computer chip venture now appears to be toward a goal establishing a network of semiconductor plants to manufacture AI chips, according to media reports. The plan would see the 38-year-old entering a hotly competitive yet underserved field, dominated by Nvidia and increasingly Intel, AMD and Qualcomm. Apparently, he feels the existing players aren’t set up to produce the amount of chips required to meet the goals of OpenAI and others through 2030, now that many businesses incorporate AI into workflows and consumer products.

“Altman has had conversations with several large potential investors in the hopes of raising the vast sums needed for chip fabrication plants, or fabs, as they’re known colloquially, said the people, who requested anonymity because the conversations are private,” reports Bloomberg, which notes the project would involve working with top chip manufacturers, and the network of fabs would be global in scope.

Among the entities with which Altman is said to have held funding talks are G42 of Abu Dhabi and Japan’s SoftBank Group, with Intel and Taiwan’s TSMC mentioned as potential operational partners for OpenAI, according to Bloomberg, which says Microsoft has been “sounded out” for some sort of participation.

The discussions with G42 alone reportedly contemplate “raising $8 billion to $10 billion,” writes Forbes.

The AI-focused G42 has found itself the focus of calls for scrutiny by House China Select Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI), who expressed concern that the firm continues to deal with Chinese tech firms blacklisted by the U.S. These include Huawei Technologies and Beijing Genomics Institute.

“Gallagher urged Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to consider sanctions on G42 and 13 of its subsidiaries and affiliates,” Bloomberg says. California-based AI company Cerebras Systems is among the tech firms that receive financing from G42.

Reports of Altman’s OpenAI side project “first emerged last year,” notes SiliconANGLE, adding that at that time “the undertaking was unclear.”

“Altman had been hard at work on the chips project until he was temporarily ousted as OpenAI CEO in November, Bloomberg writes, noting that upon his return later that month “he rekindled the efforts.”