OpenAI is Not Seeking a Government Backstop for Infrastructure: CFO Sarah Friar

Sarah Friar, OpenAI’s chief financial officer, clarified that the company is not seeking a government backstop for its infrastructure commitments. 

Her clarification came after she suggested in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that government involvement, through guarantees or other financial mechanisms, could help support OpenAI’s investment in the chips and data centres. 

“OpenAI is not seeking a government backstop for our infrastructure commitments. I used the word ‘backstop’ and it muddied the point,” she said in a LinkedIn post. 

For context, a backstop means a government guarantee or financial safety net that reduces risk for lenders — such as a promise to cover losses or ensure repayment. 

“I was making the point that American strength in technology will come from building real industrial capacity, which requires the private sector and government playing their part,” she added, further reiterating the support the US government has provided in propagating AI-related projects and companies. 

Previously, at a business conference held by WSJ, Friar stated that maintaining state-of-the-art AI capabilities requires constant investment in the most advanced chips, which form the foundation of AI infrastructure. 

She explained that OpenAI’s approach has always been to operate on the technological frontier, but doing so depends on the availability and financing of these high-performance chips.

She questioned how long a frontier chip stays cutting-edge, noting that if high-end chips remain useful for years, financing large-scale compute becomes easier. But if technology advances quickly, shortening chip lifecycles, the financial risk and cost rise.

To manage that, Friar said OpenAI and similar companies are looking to build an ecosystem of financial partners, such as banks, private equity firms, and potentially governments, to help share the cost and risk of this infrastructure.

When asked whether this meant government subsidies, she clarified that the support wouldn’t necessarily come in the form of direct funding. 

Friar said she was referring to a potential government backstop — in the form of credit guarantees or risk-sharing arrangements — that could lower borrowing costs and allow companies to take on more debt for large-scale chip and data centre investments, making such infrastructure projects more financially sustainable.

She went on to add that the U.S. government “has been incredibly forward-leaning,” recognising that “AI is almost a national strategic asset.” She said it was important for the country to “grow our AI ecosystem as fast as possible” in light of global competition. 

Asked whether OpenAI was in talks with the White House to formalise such support, Friar said, “We’re always being brought in by the White House to give our point of view as an expert on what’s happening in the sector, for sure,” but clarified there was “nothing in the works.”

Friar’s comments exacerbated the conversations on social media about the possibility of an AI bubble, given how the company has forged large-scale, capital-intensive partnerships with NVIDIA, Oracle, AMD, and Amazon’s AWS — all in the last few weeks — while now appearing to seek governmental support for investments.