Internal financial forecasts indicate the AI startup will exhaust its current cash reserves by 2028 due to massive infrastructure costs. OpenAI projects negative free cash flow of $278 billion from 2026 through 2030, with $856 billion spent on compute and infrastructure. Annual revenue is expected to climb from $36 billion this year to $350 billion by 2030, totaling roughly $840 billion over the period. The company is now discussing a new funding round with investors proposing a $1.2 trillion valuation, though OpenAI is seeking a higher figure.

A confidential IPO filing from June has been delayed, moving the company away from a targeted fall listing. OpenAI has cut prices to compete with Anthropic and Chinese open-weight models, though new model launches helped push annualized revenue above $40 billion in July. The current cash-burn projection of $278 billion is an improvement from the $305 billion forecast in May.