A new Wall Street Journal report claims that OpenAI missed internal revenue and weekly active user goals in early 2026. The story broke hours before US markets opened on April 28, sending AI-related stocks 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 ahead of earnings season.
Report showing internal errors of OpenAI
Widget He said OpenAI did not meet internal goals for revenue and weekly active users through early 2026. This shortfall came as competitors gained share in coding and enterprise workloads.
ChatGPT also missed its internal goal of 1 billion weekly active users by the end of the year. Anthropic and Google gain twin It was cited as a major reason. Developer-heavy sectors saw the greatest competitive pressure, according to the report.
OpenAI is The race towards a possible public listing With a value approaching 850 billion dollars. The company has signed hundreds of billions of dollars worth of computing commitments with cloud partners.
This includes recently Restructuring arrangement with Microsoft That ended the Azure exclusivity.
Finance Director Sarah Friar calls for tighter spending discipline
Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has warned colleagues that heavy capital spending could exceed revenues if growth does not accelerate.
Internal debate has reportedly grown over whether OpenAI can fund its data center pipeline Before any general list.
The monk had previously told his colleagues about this OpenAI is not ready for its planned 2026 listing. In contrast, CEO Sam Altman favored a faster timeline and continued aggressive investment in computing.
Other media outlets also focused on whether the company’s burn rate can sustain its capex pipeline.
Pre-market trading saw Oracle fall nearly 3%, with Nvidia and AMD shares falling in the headlines.
Kramer calls out the timing
Kramer pushed back on that framework, calling the new report a consistently successful work whose timing often seems deliberate.
“Isn’t everyone as amazed as I am at the wonderful timing of this successful magazine? Timing is everything,” Sarcastically.
Meanwhile, the narrative comes amid expected pressure from rivals like Anthropic, which had a pre-IPO valuation at Jupiter’s $1 trillion.
OpenAI is still growing rapidly, with capital expenditures shaped more by chip supply than weak demand, Bowles said.
However, skeptics point to real concerns about the burn rate, IPO readiness, and Altman’s expansion plans.
The split reflects a broader market split over AI valuations as earnings season approaches.
“There is likely to be a value split among companies benefiting from AI. Companies using AI may face a “dispersion in valuations” over the coming years, strategists at Morgan Stanley say in a note. Companies that use AI to improve their productivity and reduce costs are likely to “re-rate higher while others fall behind.” He says.
The next part of AI and Semiconductor earnings reports may determine which side will gain more attention.
If revenue accelerates and capital expenditure commitments continue, the WSJ results will fade.
However, if growth continues to moderate, Friar’s internal warnings could shape OpenAI’s path to the public market.
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