OpenAI’s CFO Says a Fully For-Profit Structure Is the ‘Right Answer for Us’

In June, OpenAI tapped Sarah Friar, then CEO of the neighborhood social networking app Nextdoor, to serve as its first chief financial officer. Friar’s short tenure has already been an eventful one, with OpenAI recently raising $6.6 billion in a massive round that valued the company at a staggering $157 billion. Now, Friar is overseeing the company’s transition from a capped-profit arm under a nonprofit to a fully for-profit one.

“We’re on the journey,” Friar said of the transition during an onstage interview at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York yesterday (Dec. 10). She noted that a “more traditional corporate structure is likely the right answer for us” given OpenAI’s rapidly surging revenue and ballooning need for funds to underpin its compute and data ambitions.

OpenAI currently has 300 million weekly users, according to Friar, up from 250 million in October and 200 million in August. The company’s paid users account for around 75 percent of the company’s revenue, which is expected to total at $3.7 billion this year and skyrocket to $11.6 billion in 2025.

The company’s hunger for expensive computing resources has also caused some cracks in its $14 billion strategic partnership with Microsoft. Despite lauding their relationship as “almost age-defining,” Friar conceded that OpenAI’s “big appetite” for compute has already led the company to explore alternative options, such as a deal struck with Oracle this summer that will provide OpenAI access to more computing capacity.

The OpenAI and Microsoft deal reportedly includes a clause that stipulates the A.I. partnership must end once OpenAI achieves artificial general intelligence (A.G.I.), a form of A.I. with capabilities that match or exceed those of humans. OpenAI is potentially looking to toss this provision in order to keep its valuable partnership going, as reported by the Financial Times. “I think about it less as this moment of declaring A.G.I. and more about how do we as partners continue to both maintain what’s very good in our relationship, in terms of helping each other grow, but also recognizing that diversification is a good thing as well,” Friar said when asked about her vision for OpenAI and Microsoft going forward.

It might need to act fast, as the timeline for advanced A.I. capabilities could be around the corner, according to Friar. “I don’t believe it’s a decade,” she said. “People are going to be surprised at how fast this technology comes at us.”

When asked about the influence the incoming Trump administration and its advisors might exert on OpenAI and the broader A.I. community, Friar lauded Trump as “the president of this A.I. generation.” “He’s going to be right there at the beginning of it; maybe even as things like A.G.I. get there,” she said.

Another figure set to play a role in shaping the new administration’s tech policy is Elon Musk, who has close ties to Trump and will co-head a newly created advisory group focused on cost-cutting within the federal government. An OpenAI co-founder, Musk has become one of the company’s most significant rivals via his own A.I. startup xAI and is currently involved in litigation against the A.I. company.

Despite OpenAI’s tensions with Musk, Friar said the ChatGPT-maker “trusts” that Musk will prioritize “national interest and compete appropriately.” Her comments echoed those made earlier this month by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who suggested it would be “un-American” for Musk to use his newfound political power to harm rivals.