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Sam Altman was finally asked how OpenAI can target trillions in spending on very little revenue
By
Steve Goldstein
Last Updated: Nov. 3, 2025 at 6:01 a.m. ET
First Published: Nov. 3, 2025 at 4:18 a.m. ET
 OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said revenue growth will help pay for the ChatGPT maker's spending commitments. Photo: mandel ngan/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
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OpenAI’s Sam Altman sat down with Microsoft chief Satya Nadella for what he must’ve imagined would be a friendly interview with Altimeter Capital founder Brad Gerstner — but the venture capitalist asked the big question that is puzzling the entire market.
“Hanging over the market is — how can a company with $13 billion in revenue make $1.4 trillion in spending commitments,” asked Gerstner in an interview released over the weekend.
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Altman immediately went for the jugular. “First of all, we’re doing well more revenue than that. Second of all, Brad, if you want to sell your shares, I’ll find you a buyer,” he said.
Altimeter Capital has participated in several funding rounds for OpenAI, including an $8.3 billion funding round in August. Gerstner quickly replied that he was looking to buy more OpenAI shares than sell them.
Altman continued that OpenAI plans to grow revenue “steeply.”
“We are taking a forward bet that it’s going to continue to grow, and that not only will ChatGPT keep growing, but we will be able to become one of the important AI clouds, that our consumer device business will be a significant and important thing, that AI that can automate science will create huge value,” he said.
Altman then continued with an Elon Musk-like bromide, in that the value of going public is to shut up critics who would bet against the stock.
“I would love to tell them they could just short the stock and I would love to see them get burned on that,” he said.
For his part, Nadella said OpenAI has not only delivered on its technological promises but also its financial ones.
“Let me just say one thing as both a partner and an investor. There has not been a single business plan that I’ve seen from OpenAI that they’ve put in and not beaten it,” said Nadella.
It’s not just OpenAI taking big swings — the so-called hyperscalers, Nadella’s Microsoft
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included, keep spending rapidly. According to Goldman Sachs, consensus estimates of their spending has risen from $314 billion at the start of the year, to $458 billion ahead of third-quarter earnings season, to $518 billion now.
Goldman’s analysts found that 49% of S&P 500 companies that have reported this quarter have mentioned the potential for AI-related efficiency gains on their conference calls, which is well ahead of just the 13% in a survey by the Census Bureau.
The S&P 500
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closed October with a 2.3% gain, to take 2025 gains to over 16%. S&P 500 futures
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saw modest gains on Monday.
About the Author
Steve Goldstein
Steven Goldstein is based in London and responsible for MarketWatch's coverage of financial markets in Europe, with a particular focus on global macro and commodities. Previously, he was Washington bureau chief, directing MarketWatch's economic, political and regulatory coverage. Follow Steve on Twitter: @MKTWgoldstein.
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