Sarah Friar, CFO of OpenAI, appears on CNBC’s Squawk Box on August 20, 2025.
CNBC
OpenAI finance chief Sarah Friar is sending a warning signal for companies and professionals to adopt artificial intelligence if they want to keep an edge.
“The people who will get left behind are not embracing AI fast enough,” she said during an appearance at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia + Technology Conference on Tuesday.
Individuals harnessing AI to their full potential represent one of the biggest threats to businesses, she said, adding that it is “someone who’s using AI deeply that’s going to disrupt you.”
The comments from Friar come as the company ramps up AI spending to fuel its flagship ChatGPT large language model. The Information reported on Friday that the company upped its cash burn to $115 billion through 2029 and over $8 billion this year.
In response to recent profitability reports, Friar said OpenAI is a “for-profit entity that sits inside a nonprofit.” The company is expected to reportedly triple revenue to about $13 billion this year and recently hit $10 billion in annual recurring revenue.
Friar also called attention to compute constraints caused by ballooning AI demands, which have led the company to go beyond its partnership with Microsoft and reach deals with Oracle, Coreweave and others.
OpenAI is doing a lot of prebuilding to get ahead of future needs, she said.
WATCH: OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar: Biggest issue we face is being ‘constantly under compute’
