OpenAI CFO signals possible new funding as compute demand rises

OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar said the company may need to raise more capital even after closing what OpenAI called a $40 billion funding round in March 2025, as the cost of securing computing power keeps rising. Bloomberg reported Friar made the comment in an interview published on May 15, saying the company was still racing to meet demand for AI capacity. The funding question lands weeks after Friar said OpenAI saw “a vertical wall of demand” for its products and days after OpenAI President Greg Brockman said the company expected to spend $50 billion on computing power in 2026. Those remarks, both reported by Bloomberg, put a number on the infrastructure burden behind OpenAI’s growth. (bloomberg.com) Cerebras added a second piece to the story this week. The AI chipmaker priced its initial public offering at $185 a share on May 13, raising $5.55 billion and valuing the company at $56.4 billion on a fully diluted basis, CNBC reported. Business Insider reported that OpenAI is both a customer and backer of Cerebras, and that OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman holds a personal stake in the company. (bloomberg.com) ### Why is OpenAI talking about more funding so soon after a record round? OpenAI announced on March 31, 2025 that it had secured $40 billion at a $300 billion post-money valuation, saying the money would help scale compute infrastructure and support products used by 500 million weekly ChatGPT users. That round was backed by SoftBank. (cnbc.com) SoftBank said on December 31, 2025 that it had completed an additional $22.5 billion investment in OpenAI at the second closing of its commitment, bringing the total aggregate commitment with co-investors to $41 billion. SoftBank said its ownership stake in OpenAI was about 11% after the transaction. Friar’s latest comment shows that the earlier financing did not settle OpenAI’s capital needs. (openai.com) Bloomberg said she described the prior raise as the largest private fundraising round ever, while also saying the company may seek more money as the compute crunch deepens. (group.softbank) ### What is driving the cash need? Greg Brockman said on May 5 that OpenAI expected to spend $50 billion on computing power in 2026, according to Bloomberg and Reuters. Reuters reported Brockman also said the company’s computing costs had risen from about $30 million in 2017 to tens of billions of dollars this year. (bloomberg.com) Sarah Friar said in a separate Bloomberg interview published on May 1 that OpenAI saw “a vertical wall of demand” for its products. That comment came as she pushed back on concerns about missed internal targets. Taken together, those statements point to a simple operating fact: OpenAI is saying demand for its services and the cost of the infrastructure behind them are rising at the same time. (bloomberg.com) That is an inference from the company’s own public comments and reported spending figures. (bloomberg.com) ### Where does Cerebras fit into this? Cerebras, which makes AI chips, raised $5.55 billion in its IPO and began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker CBRS, CNBC reported. The company priced above its expected range, according to CNBC. Business Insider reported that OpenAI is a customer and backer of Cerebras and that a newly disclosed court document showed Altman owned about 89,000 Cerebras shares as of Dec. 31. (bloomberg.com) CNBC reported that stake would be worth about $16.5 million at the IPO price. Business Insider separately said Altman’s holding had previously been valued at $3.2 million and could now be worth around $30 million after the stock’s jump. (cnbc.com) Cerebras’ listing also provides a public-market datapoint for investors trying to value AI infrastructure suppliers beyond Nvidia. CNBC said the offering was one of the largest tech IPOs in years. ### What should readers watch next? OpenAI has not announced a new financing round or terms for one as of May 15. (businessinsider.com) Friar’s comment, as reported by Bloomberg, signals only that another capital raise is possible. Cerebras’ next public milestones will come through its Nasdaq trading and future securities filings. (cnbc.com) OpenAI’s next concrete funding step, if it comes, would likely be disclosed by the company or by major backers such as SoftBank, which previously published details of its OpenAI investment closings. (group.softbank) (bloomberg.com)