OpenAI Report Misses Targets Before AI Earnings Season

A new Wall Street Journal report claims OpenAI missed internal revenue and weekly active user targets in early 2026. The story landed hours before US markets opened on April 28, pulling AI-linked shares lower in pre-market trading.

According to CNBC’s Mad Money host Jim Cramer, the report was a recycled hit job timed to rattle AI stocks before earnings season.

Report Lays Out OpenAI’s Internal Misses

The piece said OpenAI fell short of internal goals for revenue and weekly active users during early 2026. The shortfall came as rivals picked up share in coding and enterprise workloads.

ChatGPT also missed its internal target of 1 billion weekly active users by year-end. Gains by Anthropic and Google’s Gemini were cited as a key reason. Developer-heavy segments saw the sharpest competitive pressure, according to the report.

OpenAI is racing toward a possible public listing valued near $850 billion. The company has signed compute commitments worth hundreds of billions of dollars with cloud partners.

That includes a recently restructured arrangement with Microsoft that ended Azure exclusivity.

CFO Sarah Friar Pushes for Tighter Spending Discipline

Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar warned colleagues that aggressive capital expenditure could outpace revenue if growth does not accelerate.

Internal debate has reportedly grown over whether OpenAI can fund its data-center pipeline before any public listing.

Friar has previously told colleagues that OpenAI is not ready for its planned 2026 listing. CEO Sam Altman, by contrast, has favored a faster timeline and continued aggressive investment in compute.

Other media outlets have also focused on whether the company’s burn rate can sustain its capex pipeline.

Pre-market trading saw Oracle drop roughly 3%, with Nvidia and AMD easing on the headlines.

Cramer Calls Out the Timing

Cramer pushed back on the framing, calling the new report an evergreen hit job whose timing seems often too deliberate.

“Doesn’t everyone marvel as I do of the exquisite timing of this Journal evergreen hitjob? Timing is everything,” he quipped.

Meanwhile, the narrative comes amid expected pressure from rivals such as Anthropic, whose pre-IPO valuation has reached $1 trillion on Jupiter.

Bulls argued OpenAI is still growing fast, with capex shaped more by chip supply than soft demand.

Skeptics, however, flag real concerns about burn rate, IPO readiness, and Altman’s expansion plans.

The split mirrored a broader market divide over AI valuations heading into earnings season.

“Valuation split is likely among companies benefitting from AI. Companies in the AI field could face ‘valuation dispersion’ over the coming years, Morgan Stanley strategists say in a note. Companies that use AI to improve their productivity and lower costs are likely to “re-rate higher while others fall behind,” strategists say.

The next stretch of AI and semiconductor earnings reports may decide which side gains traction.

If revenue accelerates and capex commitments hold, the WSJ findings will fade.

However, if growth keeps moderating, Friar’s internal warnings could shape OpenAI’s path to the public market.