OpenAI has sharply raised its projected cash burn through 2029 to US$115-billion (R2-trillion) as it ramps up spending to power the AI behind its popular ChatGPT chatbot, The Information reported on Friday (paywall).

The new forecast is $80-billion higher than the company previously expected, the news outlet said, without citing a source for the report.

OpenAI, which has become one of the world’s biggest renters of cloud servers, projects it will burn more than $8-billion this year, some $1.5-billion higher than its projection from earlier this year, the report said. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

To control its soaring costs, OpenAI will seek to develop its own data centre server chips and facilities to power its technology, The Information said.

OpenAI is set to produce its first artificial intelligence chip next year in partnership with US semiconductor giant Broadcom, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, saying OpenAI plans to use the chip internally rather than make it available to customers.

The company deepened its tie-up with Oracle in July with a planned 4.5GW of data centre capacity, building on its Stargate initiative, a project of up to $500-billion and 10GW that includes Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group. OpenAI has also added Google Cloud among its suppliers for computing capacity.

Read: Wits professor named in Time’s list of 100 most influential people in AI

The company’s cash burn will more than double to more than $17-billion next year, $10-billion higher than OpenAI’s earlier projection, with a burn of $35-billion in 2027 and $45-billion in 2028, The Information said. — Rishabh Jaiswal, (c) 2025 Reuters

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