Does OpenAI thinks the government need to backstop the future?

A race fueled by trillions of dollars for computing infrastructure, went through an dramatic public snag this week. The centre of the controversy was Sarah Friar, CFO of OpenAI. Friar at an interview with Wall Street Journal apparently went on asking the American taxpayers to help underwrite the private-sector’s ambition.

Friar was discussing the capital requirements needed to maintain OpenAI’s technological lead, which involves constantly purchasing cutting-edge chips and building vast, yet expensive data centres.

When asked about financing this massive expenditure, she suggested the need for an “ecosystem” of support.

“This is where we’re looking for an ecosystem of banks, private equity, maybe even governmental the way governments can come to bear... First of all, the backstop, the guarantee that allows the financing to happen, that can really drop the cost of the financing but also increase the loan to value, so the amount of debt you can take on top of an equity portion”, Friar commented.

It was further clarified that the support she is asking for is “ federal backstop”. Here, the implication was clear, a government loan gurantee that would shift the risk of default onto the taxpayer, enabling OpenAI to borrow large capital at a lower interest rates.

The immediate retraction

The comment brought a storm of criticism to OpenAi, condemning the idea of federal backing for a private, multi-billion-dollar company. Within hours, Sarah Friar moved to contain the damage, posting a detailed clarification on LinkedIn.

Friar’s revised narrative emphasized a need for government collaboration on building "industrial capacity," not for guaranteeing OpenAI’s loans.

Altman Steps In

The storm came to rest as Sam Altman takes on X to shut down the speculation completely and set a firm policy line for the company.

I would like to clarify a few things.

First, the obvious one: we do not have or want government guarantees for OpenAI datacenters. We believe that governments should not pick winners or losers, and that taxpayers should not bail out companies that make bad business decisions or…

— Sam Altman (@sama) November 6, 2025

Altman emphasised that OpenAI does not seek or want any government gurantees for its data centres, stating that governments should "not pick winners or losers" and taxpayers should not bail out companies that make "bad business decisions."

However, Altman did introduce a critical nuance: he noted that OpenAI has discussed loan guarantees with the government in the context of supporting the buildout of domestic semiconductor fabrication plants (fabs). This distinction, supporting the national supply chain versus backing a specific company’s infrastructure, was a key difference, reinforcing the idea that AI is a strategic national asset that requires a robust domestic manufacturing base.