OpenAI Misses Revenue Estimates, Raising Questions About Data Center Spending Plans

OpenAI has fallen short of its own revenue and user growth estimates, raising questions about whether the AI company can meet its massive data center spending plans, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Finance Chief Sarah Friar has expressed concerns over the company's ability to fund future compute agreements if the revenue slowdown continues, the outlet reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. According to the report, Friar is working with other executives to clamp down on costs as the board of directors more closely scrutinizes OpenAI's computing deals. "This is ridiculous," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Friar said in a joint statement to CNBC. "We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day." Shares of chipmakers and tech companies, such as Oracle, slumped on the report. The setup raises questions about OpenAI's financial wherewithal ahead of its highly anticipated public offering expected later this year. In recent months, OpenAI and hyperscaler peers have shelled out billions to fund datacenters to meet ballooning compute demand. Many of those deals are closely tied to OpenAI. Oracle inked a $300 billion five-year computing deal with OpenAI, and Nvidia has pledged billions to the startup. OpenAI recently launched a major strategic partnership with Amazon and expanded an existing $38 billion spending agreement by $100 billion. This week, OpenAI announced major changes to its partnership with Microsoft, a longtime backer that has invested more than $13 billion in the company since 2019. As part of the changes, OpenAI will cap revenue share payments, and Microsoft will no longer have an exclusive license to its intellectual property.