Breaking news! AI giant hits the brakes: OpenAI cuts back on computing power expenditure targets

AI Giants Hit the Brakes!

According to the latest news, OpenAI has significantly reduced its capital expenditure target for infrastructure development to $600 billion, a substantial cut from its previous commitment of $1.4 trillion.

Additionally, data shows that OpenAI’s revenue in 2025 will reach $13.1 billion. OpenAI now estimates that its total revenue by 2030 will exceed $280 billion.

OpenAI Lowers Capital Expenditure Target

According to CNBC, several months ago, OpenAI’s founder and CEO Sam Altman boasted about a $1.4 trillion infrastructure investment commitment. Now, OpenAI is informing investors that its total capital expenditure goal for 2030 is approximately $600 billion.

Sources reveal that, due to widespread concerns that its expansion ambitions far exceed potential revenue, this AI giant is providing a lower figure and a clearer spending timeline. These anonymous sources state that OpenAI expects its total revenue in 2030 to surpass $280 billion, with consumer and enterprise businesses contributing nearly equally. They say the company’s proposed spending plan aims to be more directly linked to its expected revenue growth.

Sources indicate that OpenAI generated $13.1 billion in revenue in 2025, exceeding its $10 billion target. It spent $8 billion over the year, below the $9 billion forecast. Now, OpenAI has set its 2030 revenue goal at around $280 billion. However, according to The Information, OpenAI’s adjusted gross margin had fallen to 33% by 2025, and the company still expects cash flow to turn positive by 2030.

Founded in 2015, OpenAI initially operated as a non-profit research lab. Since launching the ChatGPT chatbot in 2022, it has rapidly entered the mainstream. Sources say ChatGPT currently has over 900 million weekly active users, up from 800 million in October.

Facing competition from Google and Anthropic, OpenAI announced a “red alert” mode in December last year, focusing on improving ChatGPT. Growth slowed last fall, but now its weekly and daily active user numbers have recovered to record highs.

It is also reported that OpenAI’s coding product Codex has over 1.5 million active users weekly, directly competing with Anthropic’s Claude Code, which has gained many users over the past year.

Close to $100 Billion in Funding

OpenAI is finalizing a massive funding round potentially exceeding $100 billion, with about 90% coming from strategic investors including Nvidia, SoftBank Group, and Amazon. This deal could value OpenAI at over $850 billion.

It is reported that OpenAI plans to allocate a significant portion of the new funds to hardware procurement related to infrastructure, including chips from Nvidia for data centers and infrastructure development.

Foreign media report that, as part of this long-anticipated funding round, Nvidia has invested nearly $30 billion in OpenAI. This investment effectively replaces a previous planned $100 billion investment agreement between the two companies.

Last September, Nvidia and OpenAI announced a multi-year $100 billion cooperation framework. This was disclosed as a “letter of intent,” with plans for Nvidia to invest $10 billion in ten installments over several years to acquire significant equity; OpenAI also planned to purchase millions of Nvidia AI processors to support up to 10 gigawatts of new computing power. This “LOI” deepened the partnership between the two AI industry leaders and helped Nvidia’s market cap surpass $5 trillion within weeks.

This agreement also led to a series of intensive cooperation contracts for Sam Altman’s AI startup, including complex deals with chipmaker AMD and Broadcom, as well as partnerships with cloud providers like Oracle.

Although these agreements were initially well-received by stock investors, a series of binding collaborations among suppliers, clients, and investors in the AI field have raised concerns among some analysts. They worry about cyclical architecture issues and the growing bubble in the industry.

The Nvidia-OpenAI $100 billion cooperation framework remains at the memorandum stage and has not been officially implemented. In January, reports indicated the agreement had been “shelved,” and now it will be replaced by a more direct cooperation—Nvidia will invest up to $30 billion in exchange for equity in OpenAI.

According to foreign media citing sources on Friday, OpenAI has assembled a team of over 200 people developing a series of AI hardware devices, including smart speakers, and may launch smart glasses and smart lighting.

The reports say that the first device to be released by OpenAI will be a smart speaker priced between $200 and $300. It is expected to launch no earlier than February 2027 and will feature a camera to gather user and environmental data. The smart glasses may not be mass-produced until 2028.

Previously, OpenAI acquired the startup io Products, founded by former Apple designer Jonathan Ive, for $6.5 billion, marking its entry into hardware, aiming to capitalize on the growing market for physical AI and augmented reality devices.

Facebook’s parent company Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses have achieved notable success, allowing users to record videos, take photos, and play content via a miniature camera. Reports say Apple and Google are also developing their own smart glasses.

(Source: Securities Times)