OpenAI refutes slowdown concerns, stating that consumer and business operations are "running at full speed"

BlockBeats News, April 29 — According to Bloomberg, OpenAI on Tuesday refuted concerns about its sales growth, stating that despite reports claiming the AI startup has not met internal targets, its consumer and enterprise businesses are “running at full speed.” OpenAI said the company continues to see demand growth from commercial clients and emerging advertising businesses. In a statement, OpenAI said: “The internal atmosphere is extremely positive.” The Wall Street Journal later reported on Monday evening that OpenAI failed to meet several internal targets amid competition from rivals. OpenAI described the report as “typical clickbait.”

Several OpenAI investors and partners, including SoftBank Group, Oracle, and CoreWeave, saw their stock prices fall in response on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal also reported that OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar expressed concerns, stating that if sales growth is not fast enough, the company may not be able to afford its future computing power needs. Stock fluctuations highlight OpenAI’s central role within a complex network of investments and deals involving major cloud providers and chip manufacturers. Investors have previously grown more worried about an AI infrastructure bubble, questioning OpenAI and other tech companies’ plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in data centers and chips over the coming years. In its Tuesday statement, OpenAI said the company continues to view its pursuit of more computing power as “a key driver,” enabling it to “offer better product experiences to customers.”

Earlier this month, OpenAI told investors that its early efforts to significantly expand computing resources have given it a crucial advantage over long-term competitor Anthropic, as the latter falls behind. However, even before the Wall Street Journal report, OpenAI had begun to adopt a more cautious approach to infrastructure investments. Oracle, a key data center partner of OpenAI, said Tuesday that it remains “extremely excited” about its collaboration with the AI developer. CoreWeave also noted that OpenAI is not the company’s only partner, stating that its clients also include Google (a subsidiary of Alphabet), Meta, Anthropic, and Microsoft, and added that “the demand for computing power continues to grow.”