Sarah Friar, CFO of OpenAI, appears on CNBC’s Squawk Box on August 20, 2025.
CNBC
OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said late Wednesday that the artificial intelligence startup is not seeking government backing for its infrastructure commitments, clarifying previous comments she made onstage during The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live event.
At the event, Friar said OpenAI wants 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 obscured the point,” Friar wrote. “As the full clip of my response shows, I made the point that America’s strength in technology will come from building real industrial capacity, which will require the private sector and government to do their part.”
OpenAI has signed more than $1.4 trillion in infrastructure deals in recent months to try to build the data centers it says it will need to meet rising demand. The agreements have raised questions about how the company can afford such massive commitments.
Sarah Friar, chief financial officer of OpenAI Inc., left, and Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI Inc., during a media tour of the Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas, U.S., on Tuesday, September 23, 2025.
Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images
In September, Friar told CNBC that OpenAI was expected to generate around $13 billion in revenue this year. But in a podcast over the weekend, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told the investor Brad Gerstner said the company is “making significantly more revenue.”
Altman bristled when Gerstner asked how OpenAI could make more than $1 trillion in spending commitments given its revenue.
“Brad, if you want to sell your shares, I will find a buyer for you,” Altman said. “Enough.”
In her LinkedIn post, Friar emphasized that the U.S. government will be a critical partner for the company as it expands its infrastructure.
“As I said, the U.S. government has been incredibly forward-thinking and truly understood that AI is a national strategic asset,” Friar wrote.
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