OpenAI sees nearly $280 billion in cash burn through 2030

OpenAI expects to spend about $278 billion more cash than it generates between 2026 and 2030, according to company materials reported by the Financial Times and cited by Bloomberg. That is negative free cash flow: even after customer revenue, the company would still face a huge funding gap. The biggest cost is the computing infrastructure needed to train and run AI models, with projected spending of roughly $856 billion by 2030. The striking part is that OpenAI still expects revenue to rise from $36 billion this year to $350 billion in 2030, but its plan assumes that building AI capacity will remain more expensive than its fast-growing sales as competition puts pressure on prices.