The Information: OpenAI missed an internal revenue target, heightening funding concerns

OpenAI recently missed internal targets for user growth and revenue, according to the Wall Street Journal, adding pressure to the company’s spending plans. (reuters.com) Reuters reported that finance chief Sarah Friar told other leaders the company could struggle to fund future computing contracts if revenue growth does not accelerate. Sam Altman and Friar said in a statement to Reuters that OpenAI is “totally aligned” on buying more compute. (reuters.com) The Wall Street Journal report, as described by Reuters, said OpenAI missed multiple monthly revenue targets earlier in 2026 after losing ground to Anthropic in coding and enterprise markets. It also said ChatGPT fell short of an internal goal of reaching 1 billion weekly active users by the end of 2025. (reuters.com) Those misses landed after OpenAI had just posted rapid top-line growth. Reuters reported on March 4 that OpenAI had reached $25 billion in annualized revenue by the end of February 2026, up 17% from $21.4 billion at the end of 2025, citing The Information. (reuters.com) The new report shifts attention from growth to cash demands. CNBC said Oracle fell about 7.5% in premarket trading on April 28, while CoreWeave dropped 7% and SoftBank Group fell about 10% in Asia after the Journal’s report raised questions about AI infrastructure spending. (cnbc.com) OpenAI’s infrastructure obligations are unusually large. CNBC said Oracle has a $300 billion, five-year partnership to supply computing power to OpenAI for AI operations, making any slowdown in OpenAI’s growth relevant beyond one company. (cnbc.com) Competition has tightened at the same time. Reuters reported in March that OpenAI’s annualized revenue was $25 billion at the end of February, while CNBC reported that Anthropic had topped a $19 billion annual revenue rate in March. (reuters.com) (cnbc.com) The immediate issue is not whether OpenAI is still growing. The issue is whether that growth is arriving fast enough, and predictably enough, to support long-dated compute deals that assume demand keeps compounding. (reuters.com) (cnbc.com) That is why a miss on an internal target is moving markets. OpenAI is still one of the fastest-growing software businesses in the industry, but the latest report says its revenue curve is no longer running cleanly ahead of its compute bill. (reuters.com 1) (reuters.com 2)