Well kind of. You are ignoring the elephant in the GPU hardware room right now, which is NVidia.
NVidia has a near monopoly on the AI hardware market right now, so some vertical integration of alternative AI hardware doesn't seem nearly as big if a deal if it is needed to fight that current monopoly.
That's true, but again, him attempting to put himself as the gatekeeper of who can and cannot train/utilize advanced AI systems at scale gives him (almost) unilateral control over Nvidia's own AI chip manufacturing business. Deny startups the ability to train AI systems, and you deny Nvidia the opportunity to sell them their chips. Nvidia loses that revenue stream and stops producing AI chips due to high production costs and "lack" of demand. Ultimately leading to a market where only the obscenely wealthy companies who can manufacturer their own in-house chips can train AI, and even then, Sam Altman can deny even that.
NVidia has a near monopoly on the AI hardware market right now, so some vertical integration of alternative AI hardware doesn't seem nearly as big if a deal if it is needed to fight that current monopoly.