According to monitoring by 1M AI News, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman privately expressed this year his hope for the company to complete an IPO as early as the fourth quarter; CFO Sarah Friar, however, has conveyed to several colleagues that she believes the company is not ready for an IPO in 2026, citing the required processes and organizational workload, as well as the financial risks associated with high computing power procurement commitments. Internally, Altman has repeatedly excluded Friar from financial decision-making. In recent months, he did not invite Friar to participate in discussions with a top investor regarding server procurement, with one attendee noting her absence was "notable and awkward," given her participation in previous meetings on the same topic. Since August of last year, Friar has no longer reported directly to Altman, instead reporting to the head of application business, Fidji Simo, breaking the norm where a CFO of a large company typically reports directly to the CEO. Financially, OpenAI has committed to invest over $600 billion in cloud servers over the next five years, with internal forecasts indicating that more than $200 billion in cash will be consumed before achieving positive cash flow. The recently announced $122 billion financing commitment primarily comes from Amazon and Nvidia, both of which are also OpenAI's cloud server and chip suppliers, creating a circular capital arrangement. Anthropic has surpassed OpenAI as the preferred AI model for enterprises and developers, and OpenAI's revenue growth is also slowing. Preparations for the IPO have quietly begun: OpenAI has engaged the law firms Cooley and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz and has had preliminary discussions with the IPO teams at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Altman has privately expressed a desire to go public before Anthropic, which is currently discussing an IPO plan for the fourth quarter of this year. The two executives later issued a joint statement saying they are "completely aligned on computing power strategy."