OpenAI flags $1.5T compute risk

OpenAI missed internal targets for ChatGPT growth and revenue, raising fresh questions about whether it can keep paying for the computing capacity behind its models. (usnews.com) Reuters, citing a Wall Street Journal report on April 27, said OpenAI fell short of goals for new users and revenue in recent months. The report said the company also missed an internal target of 1 billion weekly active ChatGPT users by the end of 2025. (usnews.com) (forbes.com) The same report said Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar warned colleagues that OpenAI might struggle to pay for future computing contracts if revenue growth does not accelerate. Sam Altman and Friar told Reuters the report was “ridiculous” and said the company was aligned on buying as much compute as possible. (usnews.com) Compute is the rented electricity-and-chip muscle that runs large language models, and OpenAI has spent the past year locking in enormous future supplies from cloud and chip partners. That makes growth misses more sensitive than they would be at a typical software company. (cnbc.com 1) (cnbc.com 2) The market reaction landed first on companies tied to that buildout. CNBC reported Oracle fell 4% on April 28, CoreWeave dropped more than 5%, Broadcom fell 4%, Advanced Micro Devices lost 3%, Nvidia slipped more than 1%, and SoftBank fell about 10% in Asia. (cnbc.com) One reason the numbers matter is that OpenAI had already been trying to narrow investor concerns about the scale of its infrastructure plans. CNBC reported on February 20 that OpenAI told investors it was targeting roughly $600 billion in total compute spending by 2030, down from earlier talk of $1.4 trillion in commitments. (cnbc.com) That February update also showed the company trying to tie spending more closely to revenue. CNBC reported OpenAI generated $13.1 billion in revenue in 2025, beat a $10 billion target, burned through $8 billion, and told investors it had more than 900 million weekly active ChatGPT users after a slowdown in late 2025. (cnbc.com) OpenAI publicly rejected the idea that its business is stalling. Bloomberg reported on April 28 that the company said its consumer and enterprise businesses were “firing on all cylinders,” cited growth in business demand and advertising, and called the Journal story “prime clickbait.” (bloomberg.com) The dispute leaves investors with two competing pictures: a company still adding users and revenue at huge scale, and a company whose infrastructure promises are now large enough that even a slowdown can shake suppliers, partners and markets. (cnbc.com 1) (cnbc.com 2)