# Sam Altman says energy will be AI's biggest cost and abundance constraint

> Original title: Energy is the biggest challenge because "atoms are still atoms"

- Source: Rohan Paul
- Published: 2026-11-02T17:17:36.000Z
- Bad Influence: https://badinfluence.news/items/tjdbonvxtxnxpp5kxpus9l9ms
- Original: https://x.com/rohanpaul_ai/status/2117305135953289693

## Summary

Sam Altman said at the ADIPEC opening ceremony in Abu Dhabi that energy is the biggest challenge for AI because "atoms are still atoms." He said progress on efficient models and robots for chip fabs will continue, but the physical power supply will be the dominant factor in AI's cost and abundance.

## Post

Energy is the biggest challenge because "atoms are still atoms"

- Sam Altman, at the ADIPEC opening ceremony in Abu Dhabi. 

"Everything else we're going to make huge progress on. We're going to make more efficient models. We're going to have robots that can make chip fabs more efficient and assemble racks for us. 
We can bring down the cost of delivering great AI in almost every way except, atoms are still atoms and the physical world that has to power this. 

That's going to be, I think, the very dominant factor of the cost and the abundance and how much we can create."

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Full video on "DWS News" YouTube channel, (link in comment)

[Video](https://badinfluence.news/api/img-proxy?u=https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Famplify_video_thumb%2F2117304486368821248%2Fimg%2FA0hv33B2bDb7rCRm.jpg&mode=thumb&exp=1793836800&sig=ac1b6fd07129444b)