Short answer: Jordan Metzner says OpenAI's estimated spending is close to a trillion dollars against revenue of about 10 to 15 billion. Tristan Wilson calls AI underhyped and says 15 to 20% of construction firms they talk to use enterprise AI.
Watch this answer from Episode 16 (starts at 22:11) · Episode 16 notes and transcript
From Episode 16: AI Agents Reinvent Construction, starting at 22:11.
Jordan Metzner [22:11]: Okay. Cool. Alright. Well, let's jump into the next one. Just rolling this out. So, all of this adds up to just a massive investment from OpenAI. They got some money obviously from NVIDIA as we spoke about on our last episode and then today as well. And, yeah, they say that estimated spending by OpenAI is gonna be close to a trillion dollars. And I think as like, current revenues are, like, around 10 or $15,000,000,000 annually, which is obviously incredibly impressive for a start up, but nowhere near a trillion dollars. But it just shows at least their belief as well as kind of these hyperscalers belief in where AI is going and where the AI spend is going. I'd love to get your guys' feedback here, but I don't think we've ever seen an investment project of a trillion dollars before. This has gotta be like the biggest ever. And, I mean, what does this mean? Like, if AI is this prevalent right now, how early are we when, all of this trillion dollars is actually invested in these data centers and pipelines and all these other things software is built?
Sam Nadler [23:19]: Who knows? I mean, it's it is a mind boggling amount of money. And at the end of the day, I'd I'd like I said in my last comment, I think there it could be a signal for some concerns. But, taking the other side, I'm pretty much investing all of my free cash flow in NVIDIA. I And Yola. Yeah. I think I'll probably continue doing that even at $4,500,000,000,000 valuation.
Jordan Metzner [23:52]: Yeah. It's still early, I think. Tristan, what do you think?
Tristan Wilson [23:55]: I think AI is massively underhyped. That's my opinion, just as a whole. So, like, so, like, where do I you know, I do see more, like, OpenAI enterprise accounts. That's becoming very common in construction. I'd say probably, I don't know. If I had to you know, I'd say 15 to 20%, of the folks that we talk to are using, AI across the enterprise, of course, because they know that if they sign up for the, enterprise account that they can feel more secure with, like, people uploading sensitive information. At least that's kind of the basis that I've heard. And just people getting more familiar with using AI. There just aren't a lot of tools that are purpose built for our industry, in civil construction that are very specific to the industry that have AI. I mean, we're I think we're one of the few. There are some others. So I think, yeah, people they know AI is a big thing. They know it's coming. They read the headlines, and, they don't wanna miss out. I think that's the biggest concern, because like you said, our my industry is very traditional, and, we're not known for being the most for grabbing on to innovation, as soon as it's available.
Tristan Wilson [25:07]: There are, of course, just like anything else, like, there's the technology adoption life cycle. Right? Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore, where he talks about there's, like, the 13 and a half percent that are innovators and early adopters. There are those, in this industry, but the majority is in the you know, early majority, late majority, there's they wanna see products that are more proven before they jump in. But I think everybody that I talk to, like executives, they're all using ChatGPT, maybe Claude, Grok, those types of tools on a daily basis, whether that's for personal or for professional use.
Jordan Metzner [25:44]: Yeah. Makes sense. I mean, yeah, you can see when, more AI is implemented inside of construction and more chips, more OpenAI, more hyperscalers. I mean, that's where the trillion dollars is gonna pay itself off. Right?
Tristan Wilson [26:00]: I saw an article yesterday or maybe Dave Hoy yesterday about one of the management consulting firms. I think it was maybe I don't know if it was Ernst and Young or just, one of those management consulting firms. 470,000 people got access to with Anthropic Claude, the kind of an enterprise academy. And just imagine, like, the size and scale of a deal like that. You know? I mean, 470,000 people with, a license to an app. Just It's amazing how big some of those deals can get. Right? Hundreds of millions, right, per year.
Jordan Metzner [26:36]: Hey, guys. Overall, I think it was a great episode. It was really awesome, Tristan, just to hear your side of talking about an industry that, we don't think that much about since we're focused so much on technology. It's taking industry like construction and, roadside highway and how AI is, being adopted and being applied. And, it does definitely seem like the early days and just shows how exciting it is. And, hopefully, we'll we'll get AI implemented on the other side as well from those governments. And, they'll make, better contracts and better diagrams. And, it'll be AI talking to AI, and at the end of the day, trying to, make a process that that becomes smooth for everybody. So alright. Well, I'm Jordan. On behalf of Sam and Tristan and everybody else, this was an awesome episode of built this week. You can check us out at builtthisweek.com or on YouTube or Spotify or all your favorite podcast platforms. Built This Week Podcast. So thanks everyone. Thanks Tristan.
Jordan Metzner [27:42]: Thanks Sam. And hope you guys all have a great week. See you soon. Built this week
