OpenAI execs have been fielding plenty of questions about how they expect to pay for the $1.4 trillion worth of data center build-outs and usage commitments they’ve accrued this year, given that their revenue — while rising rapidly — is a $20 billion annual run rate, CEO Sam Altman said Thursday in a post on X.
Altman’s comments came in response to comments made by Open AI CFO Sarah Friar — which she quickly walked back. Speaking at a Wall Street Journal event on Wednesday, Friar said she wanted the US government to “backstop” her company’s infrastructure loans. This, she explained, would make the company’s loans cheaper and help ensure it could always be using the latest, greatest chip.
A backstopped loan is when the government guarantees it so if the company defaults, taxpayers pick up the bill. Lenders tend to reward low-risk loans like that with better terms.
Friar said that using older chips, which compute-constrained OpenAI must do, makes financing options more affordable, but that the company’s goal is to always put its state-of-the-art models on the latest, greatest chips.
So how to pay for this revolving door of chips? She said the company is looking for an “ecosystem” to help including banks, PE firms and, she hoped, the government.
When asked what she wanted the government to do, she said, “… the backstop, the guarantee that allows the financing to happen. That can really drop the cost of the financing but also increase the loan-to-value, so the amount of debt that you can take on top of an equity portion.”
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She also implied that such talks, particularly in the U.S. were already in the works saying, “I think we’re seeing that. The U.S. government, in particular has been incredibly forward-leaning, has really understood that AI is almost a national strategic asset.”
After the Wall Street journal published the clip of her discussing this desire for a federal backstop, and plenty of X users with big followers scoffed at the idea, Friar quickly walked back her comments.
“I want to clarify my comments earlier today. OpenAI is not seeking a government backstop for our infrastructure commitments. I used the word ‘backstop’ and it muddied the point,” she posted on LinkedIn.
On Thursday, Trump’s AI Czar David Sacks weighed in. Sacks (who is a big Silicon Valley VC himself), wrote on X the US has no plans to bail out any AI company.
“There will be no federal bailout for AI. The U.S. has at least 5 major frontier model companies. If one fails, others will take its place,” he posted, adding that what the government wants to do is make “permitting and power generation easier.” While not naming her, he also forgave Friar for “clarifying” her stance.
In the wake of this, Altman wrote a lengthy post on X echoing Sacks’ sentiments.
“We do not have or want government guarantees for OpenAI datacenters. We believe that governments should not pick winners or losers, and that taxpayers should not bail out companies that make bad business decisions or otherwise lose in the market,” he wrote.
He also clarified that the backstopped loans have been discussed — but not for his company.
“The one area where we have discussed loan guarantees is as part of supporting the buildout of semiconductor fabs in the US, where we and other companies have responded to the government’s call and where we would be happy to help (though we did not formally apply).”
It is hard to fault Friar for floating the idea. She’s right that such a guarantee would make her financing job easier, even if, as Sacks wrote in his string, the idea of asking for a taxpayer-funded bailout is “ridiculous.”
As she’s now heard a resounding public “no” from someone she’d need in her corner for that idea, she and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman can expect plenty more questions about how they expect to pay for their $1 trillion buildout.
Indeed, Altman seems braced for just such a thing.
“We expect to end this year above $20 billion in annualized revenue run rate and grow to hundreds of billion by 2030. We are looking at commitments of about $1.4 trillion over the next 8 years,” he wrote, adding that the company feels good about it’s “prospects” especially its enterprise offering, new consumer devices and robotics.
