Worrying: OpenAI has missed its user and revenue targets
What's the story
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has missed its user and revenue targets in recent months. The Wall Street Journal reported that this has raised concerns among some company leaders about whether OpenAI can sustain its massive data center expenses. CFO Sarah Friar is particularly worried that if revenue doesn't increase quickly enough, the company may struggle to meet future computing contracts.
Statement
What did Sam Altman say?
OpenAI has missed several monthly revenue targets this year. The company lost ground to Anthropic in coding and enterprise markets, further complicating its financial situation. In an emailed statement to Reuters, CEO and co-founder Sam Altman and CFO Friar said, "This is ridiculous. We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day."
Slowdown
ChatGPT's growth has slowed down
The Wall Street Journal also reported that ChatGPT's growth slowed down toward the end of last year. OpenAI missed an internal target to hit one billion weekly active users for the AI chatbot by year-end. The firm has also struggled with subscriber defections, adding to its financial woes as it moves toward an IPO.