OpenAI is planning to spend an exorbitant amount of money building out AI infrastructure, as it continues trying to achieve artificial general intelligence through sheer computational scale.
That’s despite its revenue lagging far behind its enormous spending spree, with recently released Microsoft earnings suggesting that the Sam Altman-led company lost a whopping $11.5 billion last quarter.
Even its blockbuster AI chatbot ChatGPT, which accounts for the majority of the company’s revenue, appears to be stalling out on new subscribers. OpenAI is struggling to convince more than a measly five percent of its 800 million active ChatGPT users to pay for a subscription.
During a recent interview with podcaster and OpenAI investor Brad Gerstner, Altman lost his cool when he was asked outright how it all adds up.
“How can a company with $13 billion in revenues make $1.4 trillion of spend commitments?” Gerstner asked him. “You’ve heard the criticism, Sam.”
“If you want to sell your shares, I’ll find you a buyer,” a taken-aback Altman replied curtly. “Enough.”
Surprised by the confrontation, Gerstner let out a laugh in response.
“I think there’s a lot of people who talk with a lot of breathless concern about our compute stuff or whatever that would be thrilled to buy shares,” Altman said, digging in his heels. “We could sell your shares or anybody else’s to some of the people who are making the most noise on Twitter about this very quickly.”
The testy exchange, which made the rounds on social media, highlights rapidly growing concerns of an AI bubble, with companies increasingly struggling to assure investors that they’ll see returns on their investments.
Even Altman himself admitted in an interview with reporters in August that we are in a “phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI,” which could lead to “someone” losing a “phenomenal amount of money.”
The stakes are enormous. OpenAI is now understood to be the most valuable private company on Earth, despite bleeding billions of dollars, with Bernstein Research analyst Stacy Rasgon arguing in a recent note to investors that Altman “has the power to crash the global economy for a decade or take us all to the promised land.”
Altman’s short-tempered answer also highlights how he has seemingly grown tired of justifying OpenAI’s enormous spending. That’s despite Gerstner asking an arguably justifiable question that’s likely already on the minds of countless investors.
The OpenAI CEO disputed Gerstner’s estimation of the company’s revenues, but didn’t elaborate with actual numbers beyond claiming that “revenue is growing steeply” and OpenAI is taking an “open bet that it’s continuing to grow.” The company isn’t technically required to publicize the figures as it’s not public — although that could soon change, with Reuters reporting last week that OpenAI is “laying the groundwork for an initial public offering that could value the company at up to $1 trillion.”
Altman seemed to nod to the possibility, joking that he would love to see short sellers “get burned” if the company goes public.
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