India, Nov. 7 -- A race fueled by trillions of dollars for computing infrastructure, went through an dramatic public snag this week. The centre of the controversy was Sarah Friar, CFO of OpenAI. Friar at an interview with Wall Street Journal apparently went on asking the American taxpayers to help underwrite the private-sector's ambition.

Friar was discussing the capital requirements needed to maintain OpenAI's technological lead, which involves constantly purchasing cutting-edge chips and building vast, yet expensive data centres.

When asked about financing this massive expenditure, she suggested the need for an "ecosystem" of support.

"This is where we're looking for an ecosystem of banks, private equity, maybe even governmental the ...