Om Malik Questions OpenAI Financial Projections

Om Malik dissected OpenAI’s financial structure, arguing the company is engineering numbers for an IPO rather than building a sustainable business. The specifics are damning: a $110 billion round with only $25 billion actually committed near-term, 17.5% guaranteed returns offered to private equity firms, and joint ventures structured to create recurring enterprise revenue that doesn’t substantively exist yet. Even Jensen Huang and Thoma Bravo’s Orlando Bravo have publicly questioned the model. Malik contrasts OpenAI’s approach with Anthropic, which he notes is approaching $1 billion in weekly revenue. The Sora shutdown announced today – killing a consumer product six months after launch to redirect compute – fits Malik’s thesis that OpenAI is scrambling to focus resources on whatever justifies the next valuation milestone.