OpenAI Underdelivers as ChatGPT Growth Falls Short of Targets Ahead of Its IPO Push
The company that claimed AI would change everything may have misread its own trajectory. According to WSJ, OpenAI missed its internal target of 1B weekly ChatGPT users by the end of 2025 and also fell short on revenue. Part of the pressure came from Google’s Gemini taking share and Anthropic advancing in coding and enterprise, leaving its growth outlook under scrutiny.
- OpenAI raised a record $122B at an $852B valuation, yet expects to burn through that capital within three years as revenue targets begin to slip.
- OpenAI-linked stocks like OracleORCL, CoreWeaveCRWV, and NvidiaNVDA fell on the announcement as investors repriced AI infrastructure exposure.
The ticking IPO clock: OpenAI has committed roughly $600B in future compute, and CFO Sarah Friar has warned those obligations could outpace revenue if growth doesn’t accelerate. She has also flagged concerns about the public scrutiny that could come with the upcoming IPO, even as CEO Sam Altman pushes a faster timeline. Both have dismissed talk of friction as “ridiculous,” but with Elon Musk’s lawsuit over its for-profit shift now in court, the IPO path looks far bumpier than planned.