OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, who declared code red recently amid the increasing competition in the AI space, reportedly considered an unexpected expansion into the space industry earlier this year. The reports state that the company holded advanced discussions to either acquire or form a major partnership with rocket maker Stoke Space, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal that cites people familiar with the matter. The talks involved the possibility of Altman raising several billion dollars to secure a controlling stake. These negotiations ultimately ended without a deal.
Stoke Space, a fast growing private aerospace company founded by former Blue Origin engineers. The startup is known for making fully reusable rockets and is seen by analysts as an emerging challenger to SpaceX, which currently dominates the commercial launch market. A successful partnership would have given Altman a direct entry into the space launch sector, an area that aligns with his interest in building orbital infrastructure for future artificial intelligence needs.
Altman has spoken publicly about the idea of placing data centers in orbit to increase efficiency and reduce environmental pressure from the growing demand for AI computing. This interest in off-planet infrastructure has led him to back other early stage companies in the space sector. One of them is Longshot Space, a startup developing satellite deployment methods that do not rely on traditional rocket combustion technology.
In the meantime, OpenAI is working on a new model called Garlic with an aim to compete with Google and Anthropic as the AI race intensifies. As per the reports citing the internal test data, the model offers strong performance, and an early release could arrive as GPT-5.2 or GPT-5.5.