OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, India, February 19, 2026.
Prakash Singh | Bloomberg | Getty Images
OpenAI has missed its own revenue and user growth projections, raising questions about whether the AI company will be able to meet its massive data center spending plans, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Finance chief Sarah Friar has expressed concerns about the company’s ability to fund future computing contracts if revenue continues to slump, the outlet reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. The report said Mr. Fryer is working with other executives to contain costs as the board brings closer scrutiny to OpenAI’s computing deals.
“This is ridiculous,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Frier said in a joint statement to CNBC. “We are completely aligned on buying as much computing as we can and working hard together every day.”
Stock prices of chipmakers and technology companies oraclesat down with the report.
The arrangement raises questions about OpenAI’s financial strength ahead of its long-awaited initial public offering later this year. In recent months, OpenAI and its hyperscaler peers have poured billions of dollars into funding data centers to meet expanding computing demands.
Many of these deals are closely tied to OpenAI. Oracle has signed a five-year, $300 billion computing contract with OpenAI. Nvidia has pledged billions of dollars to startups. OpenAI recently entered into a major strategic partnership with Amazon, expanding its existing $38 billion spending agreement by $100 billion.
This week, OpenAI announced major changes to its partnership with long-time backer Microsoft, which has invested more than $13 billion in the company since 2019. As part of the changes, OpenAI will place limits on revenue share payments and Microsoft will no longer have exclusive licenses to its intellectual property.
Read the full Wall Street Journal report.
