OpenAI faces internal turmoil as Sam Altman pushes IPO amid executive clashes and spending crisis

OpenAI Pushes for IPO Amid Leadership Tensions

OpenAI is preparing for a potential IPO later this year at a post-money valuation of $852 billion, following a recent $122 billion funding round 1

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. But behind the scenes, Sam Altman and CFO Sarah Friar are at odds over timing. Altman wants the company public by the fourth quarter, even though OpenAI will spend upwards of $200 billion before generating positive cash flow 5

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. Friar has voiced concerns internally that the company may not be ready this year, citing financial exposure from steep spending on computing infrastructure 5

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. Sources indicate Altman has excluded Friar from key investor conversations and financial decisions, adding strain to an already tense environment 5

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Executive Reshuffles Signal Deeper Instability

The internal turmoil extends beyond the C-suite disagreement. Fidji Simo, OpenAI's CEO of AGI deployment and former applications chief, stepped away on medical leave for several weeks, with company president Greg Brockman assuming her responsibilities 1

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. CMO Kate Rouch departed to focus on her health and cancer recovery, while COO Brad Lightcap left his operational role to work on special projects reporting directly to Altman 1

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. These executive reshuffles come as OpenAI attempts to pivot from consumer products to enterprise and coding tools, with Simo reportedly telling employees the company cannot "miss this moment because we are distracted by side quests" 1

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Pentagon Contract and Sora Shutdown Fuel OpenAI Controversies

OpenAI's year began with a public relations disaster when it accepted a Pentagon contract that Anthropic had refused over concerns about autonomous weapons and domestic mass surveillance 1

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. Altman acknowledged the move "looked opportunistic and sloppy," but the damage was done, with ChatGPT uninstall rates spiking overnight 4

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. In March, OpenAI abruptly discontinued Sora, its AI video-generation app, blindsiding Disney just 30 minutes after the companies had been working together on a project 1

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. The company also shelved plans for intimate ChatGPT features and potentially stalled the Stargate data center project 1

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Computing Capacity Battle With Anthropic Intensifies

As AI industry competition heats up, OpenAI sent investors a memo claiming a computing advantage over Anthropic. The company stated it had 1.9 gigawatts of computing capacity in 2025, compared to Anthropic's 1.4 gigawatts 2

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. OpenAI projects reaching 30 gigawatts by 2030, while estimating Anthropic will have only seven to eight gigawatts by late 2027 2

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. "That gap matters because compute is now a product constraint," the memo stated 2

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. However, the boast came immediately after Anthropic unveiled Claude Mythos, its most powerful AI model yet 2

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Financial Pressures Mount as Spending Outpaces Revenue

OpenAI plans to spend about $600 billion on data centers and chips by 2030, down from an initial $1.4 trillion commitment 2

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. The company anticipates spending $121 billion on computing power for AI research in 2028 alone, burning through $85 billion that year even after nearly doubling revenue from the previous year 5

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. OpenAI doesn't expect to be profitable until 2029 at the earliest, with some estimates pushing break-even into the 2030s 1

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. When confronted about the disconnect between revenue and spending commitments, Altman grew defensive, telling podcast host Brad Gerstner: "if you want to sell your shares, I'll find you a buyer" 1

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What This Means for AI Infrastructure Investment

The clash between aggressive AI infrastructure investment and financial sustainability will define OpenAI's trajectory. The company's memo to investors emphasized that "each new generation of infrastructure lets us train more capable models, making every token more intelligent than the one before" 3

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. Yet Anthropic CFO Krishna Rao characterized his company's approach as "disciplined," contrasting with what Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called players who are "YOLO-ing" 2

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. OpenAI countered that Amodei's caution "looks less like discipline and more like underestimating how fast demand would arrive" 2

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. With competition from Google, Microsoft, and Anthropic intensifying, OpenAI faces pressure to demonstrate that massive compute spending translates to market dominance. A New Yorker investigation and an upcoming court battle with Elon Musk add further scrutiny 1

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. One Microsoft senior executive told The New Yorker there's "a small but real chance" Altman is "eventually remembered as a Bernie Madoff- or Sam Bankman-Fried-level scammer" 4

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