Sam Altman has declared that artificial intelligence development does not require government support. His statement came after the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Sarah Friar, urged the U.S. government to provide loan guarantees to help finance OpenAI’s future computing power costs.
Altman wrote on the X social platform that government guarantees for funding data centers are “not necessary.” He emphasized that taxpayers should not be responsible for “bailing out companies that make bad business decisions.”
According to him, OpenAI only discussed “loan guarantees” related to semiconductor manufacturing plant projects in the United States, and only because the government requested the company’s participation.
Earlier, at a Wall Street Journal business conference, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar had called on U.S. authorities to issue loan guarantees for AI infrastructure development. She explained that government backing could help attract the “large-scale” investments required for computing infrastructure and data center construction.
Nevertheless, the creator of ChatGPT signed infrastructure contracts worth $1 trillion in 2025 alone. The sheer scale of these commitments has raised questions among analysts and investors about how the company plans to fund such investments. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s estimated annual recurring revenue (ARR) stands at around $13 billion—70% of which comes from core user subscriptions—while its operating loss reached $8 billion in the first half of 2025.
However, CEO Altman stated in an interview that the company’s revenues were “much higher.” When asked how OpenAI would cover its expenses, he responded that “critics of OpenAI’s strategy wouldn’t hesitate to hold onto its shares.”
