Sam Altman says “enough” to questions about OpenAI’s revenue

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, recently said the company generates “significantly more” annual revenue than $13 billion — and he sounded a bit nervous when pressed about how it will pay for its massive spending commitments.

His comments came during a joint interview on the Bg2 podcast between Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about the partnership between the two companies. Host Brad Gerstner (who is also the founder and CEO of Altimeter Capital) brought up reports that the company currently generates about $13 billion in revenue — a significant amount, but dwarfed by the more than $1 trillion in computing infrastructure spending commitments that OpenAI has made for the next decade.

“First of all, we’re generating a lot more revenue than that,” Altman said. “Secondly, Brad, if you want to sell your shares, I will find you a buyer. That’s enough. I think there are a lot of people who want to buy OpenAI shares.”

“Including me,” Gaertner interrupted.

Altman then added that there are critics who “talk so obsessively about our computer stuff or anything that we might be happy to buy our stock in.”

In fact, he said that while there are “not many times” he wants OpenAI to become a public company, “one of the rare times it’s attractive is when these people write these ridiculous words ‘OpenAI is about to go out of business.'” [posts]I would tell them that they can just sell the stock short, and I would love to see them get burned because of it.

Altman acknowledged that there were ways “the company could mess it up” — for example by failing to access sufficient computing resources — but said that “revenues are growing sharply.”

“We’re betting that it will continue to grow, and that ChatGPT will not only continue to grow, but that we will be able to become one of the important AI clouds, that our consumer hardware business will be something significant and important, and that AI that can automate science will create tremendous value,” he added.

Nadella, who laughed at much of Altman’s answer, also claimed that OpenAI “beat” every business plan he presented to Microsoft as an investor.

Gaertner returned to the topic of OpenAI’s revenue and IPO plans later in the interview, when he predicted the company would reach $100 billion in revenue in 2028 or 2029.

“How about 27?” Altman replied.

Meanwhile, he denied reports that OpenAI is planning to go public next year.

“No, no, we don’t have anything specific,” Altman said. “I’m a realist, and I assume it will happen one day, but I don’t know why people write these reports. We don’t have a specific date in mind, we don’t have a board decision to do this or anything like that. I’m just assuming things will eventually go that way.”