OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar said Friday that the company will continue to invest in AI infrastructure, even after voters sharply rebuked data centers during Tuesday’s midterm elections. “When I think about the midterm elections, I have to continue to think about how to continue investing to meet customer demand,” Friar told CNBC’s Sara Eisen in an interview at the Citi TMT Leadership Summit in California’s Pebble Beach. “It starts early with having established relationships with all the hyperscalers, and it 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 a Ballotpedia analysis and additional results compiled by CNBC on Wednesday. Opposition to the facilities grew rapidly over the summer as Americans became concerned about their potential to harm the environment, increase utility bills and contribute to job losses. Investors have become skeptical about AI trading lately due to a combination of higher borrowing costs, concerns about rising debt, and public backlash toward the industry. The Nasdaq suffered its steepest decline in 19 months on Thursday, led by a drop in shares of chipmakers and neoclouds most closely linked to AI development. OpenAI relies on data centers to train its AI models and serve customers, and Friar said he doesn’t think the election results have dramatically changed anything for the company. On Thursday, OpenAI published a policy plan and a series of commitments that it pledged to apply to the company’s owned and operated data centers in the future. “If midterm means focusing more on data centers and communities, we’re going to continue working to get into those communities and build trust with them,” Friar said. OpenAI confidentially filed its prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June, but Friar and other executives have signaled that the company is eyeing a 2027 debut. Anthropic, OpenAI’s main rival, is attempting to go public first, aiming to hit the Nasdaq by mid-November. Anthropic’s revenue in the first nine months of the year rose about 1,200% to $33.2 billion, according to its prospectus. The company said it has entered into purchase commitments and leasing agreements with total committed spending of approximately $895.4 billion, “substantially all of which is related to computing and infrastructure.” This is breaking news. Update to get updates.
