You can criticize OpenAI for many things but this was blatantly misquoted.
They were talking about backstops for chips, to get fabs constructed in the US. If anyone else said this, it would have been considered a great idea, both republicans and democrats talked about the same thing to get TSMC production into the US, but everyone pretended that OpenAI was talking about data centers in this context. They weren't/
My goodness is there a huge difference between TSMC and OpenAI. TSMC moving to the US is a benefit to all US fabless companies and fabless companies that want to do business in any sensitive US industry, and they have an incredible track record as an industry leader. Open AI's chip manufacturing is much more risky and much less payoff. I wouldn't want the government to pay a penny towards it. Especially because an estimated cost for a leading edge chip is maybe $500 million. If they can commit to $1.4T, they can do it on their own. It's almost an omen they don't feel comfortable spending that without a guarantor.
They were talking about backstops for chips, to get fabs constructed in the US. If anyone else said this, it would have been considered a great idea, both republicans and democrats talked about the same thing to get TSMC production into the US, but everyone pretended that OpenAI was talking about data centers in this context. They weren't/