OpenAI’s Sam Altman has recently reacted with irritation and defensiveness when confronted in podcast and interview settings about the massive contrast between OpenAI’s annual revenue, reportedly between $13–$20 billion, and its commitment to spend over $1.4 trillion on compute and data center contracts over the next several years.
In a recent interview, Altman dismissed understandable recurring skepticism, sharply interjecting, “If you’re looking to sell your shares, I can help you find a buyer,” and expressing fatigue with having to continually reassure doubters that OpenAI isn’t on the brink of collapse because of these commitments. He repeatedly deflected requests for detailed financial explanations, attacking critics’ motivations and essentially challenging them to “short” OpenAI stock if they’re so concerned about the risk, insisting on his confidence in the company’s growth trajectory.
My latest article at LLRX, The Imminent AI Bubble Crash (And Why It Won’t Matter in the Long Run), explains why Altman has good reason to be so defensive about the extreme mismatch between current income and forward-looking debt.
Alex Kantrowitz (who is on his way to becoming my favorite podcaster) has much more.