April 29, 2026

OpenAI misses targets for ChatGPT users, revenue amid rising costs

OpenAI has fallen short of its internal targets for weekly active users and annual revenue for its ChatGPT platform, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. CFO Sarah Friar expressed concerns that the company’s ballooning computing costs may exceed its revenue growth, jeopardizing its ability to meet future data-center spending commitments, which are approximately $600 billion. This financial pressure comes amidst rising competition, with Anthropic recently surpassing OpenAI in implied valuation on private trading platforms. As OpenAI aims to go public by the end of the year, it must address its internal controls to meet the standards of the public markets.

OpenAI: OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research organization focused on developing advanced models like ChatGPT for broad deployment. The company missed internal targets for ChatGPT weekly active users and annual revenue, prompting CFO Sarah Friar to warn leaders about compute costs potentially outpacing revenue growth. Board members have questioned CEO Sam Altman’s pursuit of additional computing capacity amid these financial pressures.
Alice Li: Alice Li is a Partner at Foresight Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in emerging technologies including AI and crypto. She described OpenAI’s stumbles as an internal tech sector rebalancing dependent on human elements AI cannot yet replicate. Li views current pressures as sentiment moving ahead of fundamentals rather than a market breakdown.
Anthropic: Anthropic is an AI safety and research company building reliable, interpretable AI systems including the Claude large language models, operating as a public benefit corporation. It has recently overtaken OpenAI in implied valuation on share trading platform Forge Global. Prediction markets favor Anthropic to complete an IPO ahead of OpenAI.
Sarah Friar: Sarah Friar is the Chief Financial Officer at OpenAI, managing financial strategy and operations following roles as CEO of Nextdoor and CFO at Square. She privately cautioned company leaders that revenue may not suffice to cover locked-in future computing contracts. Her concerns highlight tensions between ambitious AI scaling and fiscal sustainability.
Pavel Bezhin: Pavel Bezhin is Co-Founder and CFO of Napoleon IT, an AI development company. He compared OpenAI’s challenges to past tech cycles like the dot-com era, where adaptation failures rather than technology itself caused downturns. Bezhin suggests global institutions have learned lessons to avoid repeating historical crises.

`json
{
“IPO Race”: “OpenAI aims for a public listing by year-end, with concerns about internal controls meeting public market standards.”,
“Compute Cost Strain”: “OpenAI faces surging computing expenses that could surpass revenue growth, despite substantial spending commitments.”,
“Secondary Market Shift”: “Anthropic’s implied valuation surpasses OpenAI’s on private share trading platforms.”
}
`

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