OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar says company is not seeking government backstop

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said late Wednesday that the artificial intelligence startup is not seeking a government backstop for its infrastructure commitments, clarifying previous comments she made on stage during the Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live event.

At the event, Friar said OpenAI is looking to create an ecosystem of banks, private equity and a federal “backstop” or “guarantee” that could help the company finance its investments in cutting-edge chips. But in a LinkedIn post late Wednesday, Friar softened her stance.

“I used the word ‘backstop’ and it muddied the point,” Friar wrote. “As the full clip of my answer shows, I was making the point that American strength in technology will come from building real industrial capacity which requires the private sector and government playing their part.”

OpenAI has inked more than $1.4 trillion of infrastructure deals in recent months to try and build out the data centers it says are needed to meet soaring demand. The agreements have raised questions around how the company can afford to make such massive commitments.

In September, Friar told CNBC that OpenAI expected to generated roughly $13 billion in revenue this year. But on a podcast over the weekend, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told investor Brad Gerstner that the company is doing “well more revenue than that.”

Altman bristled when Gerstner asked how OpenAI could make more than $1 trillion of spend commitments given its revenue.

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“Brad, if you want to sell your shares, I’ll find you a buyer,” Altman said. “Enough.”

In her LinkedIn post, Friar emphasized that the U.S. government will be a crucial partner for the company as it works to build out its infrastructure.

“As I said, the US government has been incredibly forward-leaning and has really understood that AI is a national strategic asset,” Friar wrote.

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