OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman on Thursday called on governments to build artificial intelligence infrastructure, while also seeking to clarify the company's position on federal guarantees after an official's remarks drew criticism.

“We do not have or want government guarantees for OpenAI data centres. We believe that governments should not pick winners or losers, and that taxpayers should not bail out companies that make bad business decisions or otherwise lose in the market,” he wrote in a lengthy post on X.

The company faced fierce criticism after OpenAI chief financial officer Sarah Friar said on Tuesday that the company would like an "ecosystem" of banks, private equity and a government “backstop” to allow financing.

Ms Friar later explained her remarks in a LinkedIn post.

“I want to clarify my comments earlier today. OpenAI is not seeking a government backstop for our infrastructure commitments. I used the word 'backstop' and it muddied the point,” she wrote.

David Sacks, AI policy adviser to US President Donald Trump, also said there would be no federal bailout for AI.

“The US has at least five major frontier model companies. If one fails, others will take its place,” he posted on X.

In seeking to clarify OpenAI's position, Mr Altman also urged world governments to build their own AI infrastructure.

He said the start-up, which is pouring billions of dollars into building data centres, expects to reach more than $20 billion in annualised revenue this year and has committed to invest about $1.4 trillion over the next eight years.

This includes the $500 billion Stargate project OpenAI announced with Oracle and SoftBank at the White House in January.