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OpenAI IPO Power Struggle: CFO Sarah Friar Pushes Back Against Altman's 2026 Timeline

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar has pushed back against Sam Altman's Q4 2026 IPO plans, warning the company isn't ready. With $14B in projected losses, the Sora shutdown, executive departures, and the Musk trial, here's what's happening inside OpenAI.

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kkm

Backend Engineer / AWS / Django

2026.04.068 min0 views
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OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar has pushed back against Sam Altman's Q4 2026 IPO plans, warning the company isn't ready. With $14B in projected losses, the Sora shutdown, executive departures, and the Musk trial, here's what's happening inside OpenAI.

OpenAI's CFO Sarah Friar has internally pushed back against CEO Sam Altman's plan to take the company public in Q4 2026, warning that the organization is "not ready" for an IPO, according to a report by The Information.

The disagreement goes beyond timing. Friar has reportedly been excluded from some financial meetings, and her reporting line was quietly shifted from Altman to Fidji Simo, head of OpenAI's applications business. With $14 billion in projected annual losses, the Sora shutdown, a wave of executive departures, and Elon Musk's trial looming, what exactly is happening inside OpenAI?

Why the CFO Said "Not Ready"

According to multiple reports, Friar's objections center on three key concerns.

First, organizational readiness. The internal controls and compliance infrastructure required for a public company may not be in place by late 2026.

Second, massive infrastructure spending with uncertain returns. OpenAI has signed cloud server contracts totaling over $600 billion across the next five years with Oracle, Microsoft, AWS, CoreWeave, and others. Friar has questioned whether slowing revenue growth can justify these commitments.

Third, the long road to profitability. According to financial documents obtained by Fortune, OpenAI is not expected to reach profitability until 2029 or 2030, burning through more than $200 billion in cash before getting there. Going public while unprofitable isn't unusual, but doing so at this scale is unprecedented.

Why Altman Is Pushing Ahead

Altman has reasons to move fast. According to the Wall Street Journal, he is acutely aware that Anthropic is also exploring a late-2026 listing, and he wants OpenAI to be the first major generative AI startup to go public.

OpenAI has already hired a chief accounting officer and an investor relations lead, and has begun informal discussions with Wall Street banks. The target valuation is roughly $1 trillion.

That said, Altman has expressed ambivalence. In one interview, he said being a private company is "wonderful," and that going public would be partly exciting and partly "really annoying."

$14 Billion in Losses: OpenAI's Financial Picture

OpenAI's revenue has grown rapidly, from roughly $3.7 billion in 2024 to an annualized $25 billion as of February 2026, driven by ChatGPT subscriptions and API usage.

But costs are growing even faster. The company's 2026 losses are projected at about $14 billion, nearly triple the approximately $5 billion lost in 2024. OpenAI is on track to lose more money than it earns.

Metric202420252026 (Projected)
Revenue~$3.7B~$21.4B~$25B
Losses~$5B~$8B~$14B
Valuation$157B$300B$830B-$1T
(estimated)

The core cost driver is AI inference infrastructure. OpenAI has signed massive server rental contracts with Oracle (~$300B), Microsoft (~$250B), AWS (~$138B), and others, totaling over $665 billion.

What the CFO's Sidelining Means

The most striking revelation is that Friar has been removed from Altman's direct reports.

Friar joined OpenAI as CFO in June 2024. She previously served as CEO of Nextdoor and before that as CFO of Square (now Block), where she led the company through its IPO.

According to PYMNTS.com, her reporting line was quietly changed from Altman to Fidji Simo, and Altman has excluded her from certain investor meetings.

For a company preparing to go public, having the CFO cut off from the CEO's direct line is highly unusual. The CFO typically leads IPO preparation at the operational level, and investors will want assurances that this relationship is functional.

Publicly, both Friar and Altman have stated they remain "aligned on the company's compute strategy."

Sora, Executive Exits, and the Musk Trial: Three Crises at Once

The IPO rift has emerged against a backdrop of multiple simultaneous crises at OpenAI.

Sora Shutdown (announced March 24)

OpenAI's video generation tool Sora was burning roughly $1 million per day while generating only $2.1 million in total lifetime revenue. Users peaked at around 1 million before collapsing below 500,000. The app closes April 26 and the API on September 24. Disney's planned $1 billion investment was scrapped.

Executive Departures (announced April 3)

In a single announcement, COO Brad Lightcap moved to "special projects," CEO of Applications Fidji Simo took medical leave for a POTS relapse, and CMO Kate Rouch stepped down to focus on cancer treatment. Three senior executives effectively left their posts within one week.

Musk Trial (starting April 27)

OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk's lawsuit alleging that OpenAI betrayed its nonprofit mission heads to a jury trial on April 27 in Oakland. Musk is seeking between $79 billion and $134 billion in damages, and the trial is expected to last four weeks. An active lawsuit of this magnitude running parallel to IPO preparations is an unprecedented risk for investors.

"The Canary in the AI Bubble's Coal Mine"

On social media, some are reading OpenAI's situation as a risk signal for the broader AI industry.

Michael Burry, the investor made famous by "The Big Short," posted on X that OpenAI's financial situation "is not surprising and will not end with OpenAI," warning that the wave of AI infrastructure spending has the hallmarks of a mania.

Meanwhile, OpenAI's pre-IPO filing reportedly listed Microsoft as a "business risk," despite Microsoft being the company's largest investor and primary compute provider. As Windows Central noted, tensions between the two companies are already visible.

Will the IPO Actually Happen?

Based on the current information, a 2026 IPO faces significant obstacles.

With the CFO publicly reported as opposing the timeline, investment banks will inevitably adopt a more cautious stance. Friar herself reportedly favors a 2027 listing, potentially filing the S-1 in late 2026.

The Musk trial begins April 27 and is expected to run four weeks. An unfavorable verdict could result in a damages order in the tens of billions, potentially derailing the entire IPO. The judge has been skeptical of Musk's damages calculations but allowed the case to proceed on the grounds that "there is plenty of evidence."

Fortune called the potential IPO "a test of investor tolerance for the AI boom's cash bonfire." Revenue growth is impressive, but costs are growing even faster, recalling the dynamics of the late-1990s dot-com era.

OpenAI's story has entered a new phase: the collision between ambition and reality. Whether Altman's urgency or Friar's caution proves correct is a question the market will answer in the months ahead.

Sources