OpenAI Faces Financial Headwinds as ChatGPT Growth and Revenue Miss Targets

OpenAI Falls Short of Growth Targets

OpenAI has missed critical benchmarks for both ChatGPT's weekly active users and overall revenue, according to a report by Decrypt citing industry experts. The AI giant had aimed to reach one billion weekly active users by the end of last year but fell short, raising alarm among some investors.

CFO Sarah Friar flagged the risk that compute expenses could outstrip revenue growth. The company has been funding its substantial infrastructure spending through aggressive deal-making, but Friar cautioned that income may not be growing fast enough to cover those commitments.

Alice Li, an investment partner at Foresight Ventures, commented that once the initial hype fades, companies will likely find that much of their work still depends on human judgment, collaboration, and contextual understanding — capabilities that AI cannot yet replicate.

Why This Matters

OpenAI is one of the most valuable private technology companies and sets the direction for the broader AI industry. Its financial struggles highlight a fundamental challenge in scaling AI businesses: massive capital expenditures on infrastructure may not pay off at current monetization rates. For the crypto market, this is also relevant since many projects at the intersection of AI and blockchain track the trajectory of sector leaders.

Board members have begun scrutinizing data center agreements more closely and questioning CEO Sam Altman's push to expand compute capacity amid slowing growth. Forge CEO Kelly Rodrigues noted that Anthropic has already surpassed OpenAI in market capitalization — $1 trillion versus $800 billion.

Renegotiated Microsoft Partnership

Amid the financial uncertainty, OpenAI has revised its agreement with Microsoft. The Windows maker lost exclusive access to all of OpenAI's products and intellectual property, receiving instead a non-exclusive license valid through 2032.

Both companies still refer to Microsoft as OpenAI's "primary cloud partner," which effectively means Azure will continue hosting the bulk of the startup's infrastructure over the next six years. OpenAI's products will be delivered "primarily on Azure," but the startup can now offer its solutions to customers through any cloud provider.

In parallel, OpenAI is pursuing the construction of its own data centers with other partners. Under the updated terms, Microsoft is no longer obligated to share a portion of its revenue with OpenAI. The tech giant retains approximately 27% of OpenAI's commercial entity.

An AI-First Smartphone as a Lifeline

Hardware could become a financial lifeline for OpenAI. Prominent analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities reported that the startup is developing a smartphone chip in collaboration with Qualcomm and MediaTek. Manufacturing and co-design of the system are handled by Luxshare.

"https://t.co/Qqi64OWBM3" — 郭明錤｜Ming-Chi Kuo (@mingchikuo), original post

The planned device is not simply another smartphone with a chatbot icon. The developers intend to eliminate traditional apps entirely, replacing them with an AI agent capable of executing user tasks directly. According to Kuo, only by fully controlling both the operating system and the hardware can OpenAI deliver a truly comprehensive service.

The chip will support both on-device and cloud computation, while the phone itself will track context in real time. Mass production is expected in 2028.

In May 2025, OpenAI announced the acquisition of a startup founded by former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive, which focused on building AI-powered devices.