Ather Energy CEO dismisses ‘bankruptcy’ projection for OpenAI. He explains

OpenAI has been spending $700,000 (approx. ₹5.8 crore) daily on ChatGPT, the report noted.

OpenAI will be ‘fine,’ opined Ather Energy's Tarun Mehta on Sunday, reacting to a report that predicted that the artificial intelligence (AI) research lab will go ‘bankrupt’ next year due to its ‘high’ daily expenses, including $700,000 (approx. ₹5.8 crore) on just one product: its revolutionary creation, the ChatGPT.

The OpenAI logo is seen on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen which displays the ChatGPT home Screen. The draft bill is not final and lawyers say it will likely take years to come into force.(AP)

To back up this assertion, Mehta cited Indian start-ups (and now full-fledged companies) like Flipkart, Meesho, Ola, Paytm, and Swiggy; these, he said, burnt through more money ‘for months and even years.’

“This post seems to be going around. People are sharing that Open AI might go bankrupt next year because it burns through ₹5.8cr PER DAY! Yeah, right,” Mehta wrote in a post on X, the social media platform that was previously known as Twitter. He attached a screenshot of the report with his post.

The Ather Energy co-founder and CEO added: "5.8cr/day is 2000cr/year=$250M/year. Your friendly neighbourhood Swiggy, Meesho, Paytm, Ola, Flipkart have burnt through more of it for months and even years.

Continuing, he wrote: “Most Indian startups have burn through that kind of capital at their peaks and several of them are largely fine. Uber at its peak was burning 10X more capital for YEARS. And OpenAI is perhaps the most important startups in the last few years and has a $10B funding lined up.”

“They will be fine folks,” he concluded.

OpenAI to go ‘bankrupt’?

According to the Analytics India Magazine Magazine report, the San Francisco-based AI firm might be on the brink of a potential financial crisis, and might go bankrupt by the end of 2024.

OpenAI is ‘burning through cash at the moment’ and has failed to generate enough revenue to break even despite the attempt to monetise GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 the study noted.

The study also cited what it said was a gradual decline in ChatGPT's user base over the past months.