OpenAI Pledges to Cover Its Own Power Costs
The company says midterm results did not change its IPO plans, which remain a projection with no set date.
Updated on Nov. 6, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence
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OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said on CNBC on Friday that the 2026 midterm elections did not dramatically change the company's IPO plans. OpenAI's IPO remains a projection, not an announced filing, and the company has not set a date.
Why it matters
Democrats won a majority in Congress and flipped governorships in Texas, Georgia, and Ohio, raising the prospect of tighter oversight of AI infrastructure. OpenAI's response, a pledge to cover electricity costs and publish data-center job figures, signals that the company is trying to get ahead of local and political pressure as it expands.
OpenAI reported 70% revenue growth and doubled enterprise sales in the third quarter of 2026, figures the company gave in its own disclosures. The company's March funding round set an $852 billion post-money valuation, though the interview's pre-money figure of $1.25 billion appears to be a misstatement that was likely meant to read $1.25 trillion.
The players
OpenAI
The San Francisco-based AI lab behind the GPT model family and ChatGPT, which is building large data-center compute campuses to meet growing demand for its services.
Sarah Friar
OpenAI's chief financial officer, who has led the company's financial planning and IPO preparation.
Anthropic
OpenAI's chief rival in frontier AI models, which may pursue an initial public offering as soon as this month.
The details
OpenAI describes its data centers as compute campuses, and its pledge would have the company pay the full cost of the electricity it uses along with any grid upgrades those facilities require. Friar said the company must keep investing to meet customer demand, which is why construction continues despite the midterm results. The pledge also commits OpenAI to ending certain non-disclosure agreements with public officials and publishing job data for its data centers.
Timeline
March 2026: OpenAI closed a funding round at an $852 billion post-money valuation.
Thursday, November 5, 2026: OpenAI announced its responsible AI infrastructure pledge.
Friday, November 6, 2026: Friar addressed IPO plans in a live CNBC interview.
This month, November 2026: Anthropic may pursue its own IPO.
The Tech Race
OpenAI and Anthropic are the two leading frontier AI labs, and Anthropic may move toward an IPO this month, which would put the two rivals in public markets at nearly the same time. OpenAI's revenue growth and enterprise sales figures set a benchmark for that race, while its infrastructure pledge reflects how political pressure now shapes the scale and cost of AI data centers.
OpenAI's pledge to pay full electricity costs and publish data-center job figures would apply to its own facilities as it builds out capacity. Users of its products are not directly affected by the IPO timing, which remains a projection with no set date.
The takeaway
Watch whether OpenAI's data-center job figures and electricity cost disclosures are published as promised, since they will show how seriously the pledge is being carried out. Anthropic's possible IPO this month would be the first public-market test of a frontier AI rival's valuation.
What happens next
OpenAI is expected to target an IPO sometime next year, and Anthropic may move forward with its own IPO as soon as this month.
Further reading
For broader context on the companies and infrastructure reshaping the field, see more in Artificial Intelligence.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Business Insider.
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