OpenAI misses growth targets before IPO push

OpenAI has reportedly fallen short of internal revenue and user growth goals as it prepares for a potential IPO, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The report says ChatGPT user growth slowed late last year, missing a target of 1 billion weekly active users, while revenue also underperformed projections amid stronger competition from Anthropic in coding and enterprise AI markets.

CFO Sarah Friar reportedly raised concerns internally about whether slower growth could challenge OpenAI’s ability to sustain massive future data-center and computing commitments. Subscriber churn has also reportedly increased.

CEO Sam Altman and Friar publicly rejected suggestions of internal misalignment, stating the company remains focused on securing compute capacity and expanding aggressively.