OpenAI plans to open second German office in Berlin

en.Wedoany.com Reported - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has announced that the company plans to open a second German office in Berlin. According to an interview with the Handelsblatt business newspaper, the developer of the ChatGPT chatbot has so far maintained only one office in Germany, in Munich. Altman also expressed support for building local data centers in Germany to address the continued growth in demand for AI infrastructure.

Germany holds a significant position in OpenAI's global market landscape. By the number of paid subscription users, Germany is the largest ChatGPT market in Europe and ranks among the top three globally. "Germany has always been one of our largest and fastest-growing markets," Altman said. He noted that the German economy is betting heavily on artificial intelligence, making it a core partner for the company, citing the collaboration with Deutsche Telekom as an example. The specific opening date for the new Berlin office has not yet been determined, but it is expected to become operational "soon."

Beyond expanding its office footprint, OpenAI is also evaluating the possibility of building local infrastructure in Germany. The current surge in computing power required to run and train modern AI models has made data center deployment a key issue for AI companies. According to Altman, he has held preliminary talks with government representatives in Berlin regarding potential data center projects, but no concrete results have been achieved so far. "Ultimately, every country must answer one question: whether it wants to build data centers within its own borders or rent access to those in other countries," Altman said. He personally still hopes that Germany will advance its own data center construction and provide the necessary framework conditions and resources for this purpose.

In response to corporate concerns about the leakage of confidential business data and technical know-how, Altman emphasized the company's commitment to protecting business data and denied claims that OpenAI uses enterprise input data to train future AI models. OpenAI offers enterprise customers a binding zero-data-retention service, meaning transmitted data is not stored for subsequent evaluation. "I firmly believe in data protection for enterprise customers," Altman stressed. His goal is for the company to serve the broader economy as a platform provider rather than competing with its own customers.