844
0Will OpenAI ever make real money?
The artificial-intelligence darling’s CFO has an impossible job
May 15, 2025, The Economist
🌟完整外刊原文，请加V: HLSHW666 进学习群免费获取
Being Sam Altman is a glamorous gig. Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 the boss of its creator, OpenAI, has turned into a global business superstar. He is the darling of both the starch-collared Davos set and Silicon Valley’s dishevelled techno-Utopians. He hangs out with everyone from Katy Perry to Donald Trump, whom he accompanied on a visit to Saudi Arabia this week. It would shock no one if by its next funding round his startup, currently worth $300bn, overtook SpaceX and ByteDance to become the world’s most valuable unlisted firm. The AI wunderkind recently told the Financial Times that he has the “coolest, most important job maybe in history”. No kidding.
Being Sarah Friar is not nearly as fun. As OpenAI’s chief financial officer, the Irishwoman has two main tasks. The first is to make sure that the numbers add up. The second is to persuade investors to part with the billions of dollars the firm needs in order to train and run ever cleverer artificial-intelligence (AI) models.
Happily for Ms Friar, moneymen swept up in the AI mania need little persuading. They are falling over themselves to fund OpenAI. On May 13th SoftBank, a Japanese tech piggy-bank, said that its $30bn investment in the firm was unaffected by OpenAI’s recent decision not to ditch its odd governance structure. A non-profit board will keep control of its for-profit arm.
That is just as well, for going with the flow of investor enthusiasm leaves the CFO more time to tackle her other responsibility. And when it comes to charting a path to profits, the former Oxford University rower is paddling upstream.
