Key Points
- OpenAI’s CFO, Sarah Friar, said 2026 will be the year of “practical adoption” for the company.
- The company’s revenue is directly tied to the availability of its computing power.
- OpenAI’s annual revenue grew from $2 billion in 2023 to over $20 billion in 2025.
- The company is focused on securing the massive amounts of compute needed to power its products.
OpenAI’s chief financial officer, Sarah Friar, says that 2026 will be the year that the company focuses on “practical adoption.” In a blog post on Sunday, she wrote that the top priority is to close the gap between what AI can do and how people are actually using it in their daily lives.
“The opportunity is large and immediate, especially in health, science, and enterprise, where better intelligence translates directly into better outcomes,” Friar wrote.
She also gave a rare glimpse into the company’s business strategy. She revealed that OpenAI’s revenue growth is directly tied to the availability of its computing power. As the company’s “compute” grew from 0.2 gigawatts in 2023 to about 1.9 GW in 2025, its annual revenue jumped from $2 billion to over $20 billion. “This is never-before-seen growth at such a scale,” she said.
This comes as the entire AI industry is under a microscope for the massive sums being spent on data centers and other infrastructure. OpenAI has been at the center of this, with a huge deal with Nvidia to secure at least 10 gigawatts of computing power.
Friar acknowledged the challenges, saying, “Securing world-class compute requires commitments made years in advance.” She also said that the company has moved from relying on a single compute provider to a more diversified ecosystem.
The blog post also touched on the company’s monetization plans. Last week, OpenAI announced it would start testing ads in ChatGPT. Friar said that any monetization strategy “should feel native to the experience,” and “if it does not add value, it does not belong.”
As OpenAI gears up for a potential IPO, this blog post is a clear attempt to lay out a vision for a sustainable and profitable future.
