OpenAI is investing heavily in infrastructure and is now working to close the gap between what can AI and how people actually use it. In 2026, OpenAI plans to focus on the “practical adoption” of AI, according to a post by CFO Sarah Friar.
"The opportunity is vast and immediate, especially in health, science, and business, where better intelligence translates directly into better outcomes," the post states.
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The blog post, titled 'A business that scales with the value of intelligence', discusses how OpenAI has evolved since launching ChatGPT and how it has scaled its business. The company's weekly active user and daily active user metrics 'continue to produce historic highs', thanks to a 'wheel' that includes 'compute, research innovation, products and commercialization', according to Friar.
OpenAI: Investing in infrastructure
However, the company is also investing significantly in infrastructure, having committed around $1.4 trillion since November last year.
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OpenAI announced last week that it will soon be bringing advertising to the platform and launched the cheapest ChatGPT Go subscription . The next step in OpenAI's business model will be "expanding beyond what we already sell," Friar says:
"As intelligence is transferred to scientific research, drug discovery, energy systems and financial modelling, new economic models will emerge. Licensing, intellectual property-based and performance-based pricing will share the value created. This is how the internet evolved. Intelligence will follow the same path," he says.
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‘This system requires discipline. Securing world-class computing power requires commitments made years in advance, and growth does not move in a perfectly smooth line. In some cases, capacity precedes usage. In other cases, usage precedes capacity.‘.
