OpenAI CFO reportedly at odds with Sam Altman over missed revenue target—even as AI capex is set to hit $660 billion
OpenAI reportedly missed its revenue targets, sparking internal tension between CFO Sarah Friar and CEO Sam Altman over spending on data centers, even as global AI capital expenditure is projected to reach $660 billion this year. Friar and Altman publicly dismissed the report as 'ridiculous,' but the disagreement raises concerns ahead of a potential IPO. Meanwhile, AI infrastructure spending by major cloud providers is surging, with growth expected to continue into 2027. Geopolitical tensions, including disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and U.S.-Iran talks, are adding to global economic uncertainty.
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Good morning. On Fortune’s radar today: OpenAI missed its targets for revenue. Inside Meta’s Manus fiasco: “Killing the chicken to scare the monkeys.” AI capex will hit $660 billion this year. Markets: New record highs but oil is $111. 🚢 A tanker escaped from the Strait of Hormuz. Moving house is now a “luxury good.” THE MARKETSStocks shrug off $111 oil to hit a new record S&P 500 futures were flat this morning. The index was up 0.12% yesterday to a new record high of 7,173.91. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 was flat in early trading and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.52% before lunch. Asia: South Korea’s KOSPI was up 0.39%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 1.02%. India’s Nifty 50 was down 0.21%. China’s CSI 300 was down 0.27%. Brent crude was $111 per barrel this morning, up from $105 at this time yesterday. Bitcoin was at $74K. No wonder the market is defying the uncertainty of the war. By yesterday morning, 140 companies in the S&P 500 had reported Q1 earnings (about one-third of ’em) and of those, 73% beat analysts’ expectations on earnings per share, according to Bank of America. Recommended Video ONE BIG THINGOpenAI CFO is reportedly at odds with Sam Altman over missed revenue target OpenAI's CFO Sarah Friar is worried that the company is spending too much money on data centers and may not be generating enough revenue to support the contracts it has entered into, according to a bombshell report from the Wall Street Journal. She wants more discipline over spending, which has caused disagreement with CEO Sam Altman, the paper’s sources said. Friar and Altman called the report “ridiculous” in a joint statement. These are poor optics for OpenAI today, which is ramping up toward an IPO later this year. But expect this mess to be tidied up nicely for the S-1. ELSEWHERE IN AI …Inside Meta’s Manus fiasco: “Killing the chicken to scare the monkeys” China’s decision to block Meta’s $2 billion acquisition of Chinese AI startup Manus raises a number of unanswered questions, Fortune’s Nicholas Gordon tells me: The “Singapore-washing” strategy is well and truly dead. If you're a Chinese founder and you reestablish as a Singaporean company, both the U.S. and China will continue to see you as Chinese, and thus subject to both Washington and Beijing's regulatory scrutiny. What the heck is Meta supposed to do now? Meta already scooped up Manus’s talent and tech; it's going to be pretty hard to give that back. Manus investors have already gotten their money from the deal; do they have to pay Meta back? To use a horribly overused Chinese idiom, this may be an example of “killing the chicken to scare the monkeys." Given the pretty blatant way that Manus redomiciled in Singapore, Beijing probably had to act to stop other Chinese founders from doing the same thing. If Beijing starts looking more closely at tech transfer, it may not want companies like BYD and CATL to set up factories in the U.S.—what if that strategic tech leaks out to the U.S. economy? China actually has IP and technology worth protecting now. Nvidia poached Intel's Chief Accounting Officer Scott Gawel, 55, corporate VP/Chief Accounting Officer for Intel resigned his role on April 24 "to pursue another career opportunity," according to an SEC disclosure spotted by Fortune’s Amanda Gerut. On the same day, Nvidia's VP/Chief Accounting Officer Donald Robertson notified his company of his decision to retire. Two days later, Nvidia appointed Gawel as VP/Chief Accounting Officer with a base salary of…
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