OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar said Friday that the company will continue to invest in artificial intelligence infrastructure, even after voters sharply rebuked data centers in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
“When I think about the midterms, I have to continue to think about how we can continue to invest to meet customer demand,” Friar told CNBC’s Sara Eisen in an interview at the Citi TMT Leadership Summit in Pebble Beach, California. “It starts very early by building relationships with all the hyperscalers, and that will continue to mean we raise capital.”
Of 41 local ballot measures in 10 states, voters supported restrictions or rejected pro-development measures for all but one, according to an analysis by Ballotpedia and additional results collected by CNBC on Wednesday. Opposition to the facilities grew rapidly over the summer, as Americans grew concerned about their potential to harm the environment, increase utility bills and contribute to job losses.
Investors have recently become skeptical of the AI business due to a combination of higher borrowing costs, concerns about soaring debt and public backlash toward the industry. The Nasdaq suffered its biggest decline in 19 months on Thursday, led by a fall in shares of chipmakers and neoclouds most closely linked to the development of AI.
OpenAI relies on data centers to train its AI models and serve its customers, and Friar said she doesn’t think the election results dramatically changed anything for the company. On Thursday, OpenAI released a policy plan and a series of commitments that it committed to applying to company-owned and operated data centers in the future.
“If in the medium term we focus more on data centers and communities, we’re going to continue to work to penetrate those communities and build trust with them,” Friar said.
OpenAI confidentially filed its prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June, and Friar said Friday that the company would continue to eye a debut in 2027. Anthropic, OpenAI’s main rival, is trying to go public first, aiming to hit the Nasdaq by mid-November.
Anthropic’s revenue in the first nine months of the year jumped about 1,200% to $33.2 billion, according to its prospectus. The company said it has entered into purchase commitments and lease agreements for a total committed amount of approximately $895.4 billion, “the bulk of which is compute and infrastructure related.”
OpenAI is currently in talks to raise funding at a pre-money valuation of $1.25 billion, Friar said Friday. She said “a good CFO always raises money when he can” and that the cycle is ongoing.
“The demand for AI is real,” Friar said. “I don’t think anyone disputes that, or if they do, I think it’s a losing argument.”
WATCH: Watch the full CNBC interview with OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar
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