OpenAI plans to press forward with massive spending on artificial intelligence computing infrastructure despite widespread voter resistance during Tuesday’s midterm elections, Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar said Friday.
Speaking at the Citi TMT Leadership Summit in Pebble Beach, California, Friar told CNBC that voter decisions would not deter the artificial intelligence firm from pursuing the processing capacity needed to power its products.
“When I think about the midterms, I need to keep thinking about how do we keep investing to meet that customer demand,” Friar said in an interview with CNBC’s Sara Eisen. Friar noted that the strategy depends on maintaining partnerships with major cloud providers and continuing to secure outside funding.
Voters Reject Tech Facilities at the Ballot Box
The push to expand data centers ran into significant political headwinds on Tuesday. An examination by Ballotpedia alongside reporting by CNBC found that among 41 local ballot initiatives across 10 states, voters approved limits or defeated pro-expansion proposals in 40 of them.
Public pushback escalated during the summer months amid rising worries that sprawling server facilities strain power grids, drive up household electricity rates, harm natural resources and accelerate workplace displacement, CNBC reported.
The political shift was underscored by broader election outcomes. Incoming Democratic governors in states including Georgia and Texas have committed to halting future data center approvals following intense resident protests, Yahoo Finance reported. In a research note issued Thursday, analysts at Jefferies wrote that construction had been “relentless, and sometimes reckless” in recent years, fueling widespread skepticism among local communities.
New Commitments to Communities
In response to the backlash, OpenAI unveiled a policy blueprint on Thursday detailing new operational standards for its planned company-owned computing campuses, Yahoo Finance reported. The company promised to “pay our own way on energy and infrastructure” by fully covering electricity costs, conducting site-specific noise evaluations and drafting local water preservation plans.
The artificial intelligence developer also pledged to ban nondisclosure agreements with municipal officials and fund neighborhood-directed initiatives in host communities. Friar acknowledged the growing scrutiny during her appearance on Friday, telling CNBC that “we’re going to keep doing the work to get into those communities and to build trust with them.”
The election results and community resistance rattled Wall Street late in the week. On Thursday, the Nasdaq experienced its sharpest single-day decline in 19 months as traders dumped shares of semiconductor manufacturers and infrastructure vendors, though those equities regained some ground on Friday, CNBC reported.
IPO Plans and Funding Talks Loom
Despite the volatile environment, Friar maintained that underlying interest in generative technology remains solid, telling CNBC that “the demand for AI is real.”
OpenAI is currently negotiating a fresh financing round at a $1.25 billion pre-money valuation, Friar told CNBC, remarking that “a good CFO always raises money when she can.”
The company submitted a confidential draft registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission in June, with Friar confirming Friday that executives continue to evaluate a potential initial public offering in 2027. OpenAI’s primary competitor, Anthropic, is moving on an accelerated timeline, targeting a Nasdaq listing in mid-November, CNBC reported. According to its prospectus, Anthropic posted $33.2 billion in revenue during the first nine months of the year, alongside roughly $895.4 billion in infrastructure-related lease agreements and purchasing obligations.
What remains to be seen is whether OpenAI’s newly announced community concessions and pledges of municipal transparency will be enough to calm nervous local governments, or if the technology sector will be forced to redirect its computing hubs to fewer, more accommodating regions.
