Financial Hangover: OpenAI Misses Revenue KPIs Ahead of IPO

The generative AI bubble is beginning to undergo a harsh reality check by the actual economy. According to a WSJ inside report from April 28, 2026, OpenAI is seriously lagging behind its own targets for revenue and user base growth amid accelerated preparations for an IPO.

The industry's problem is fundamental: the cost of computations (especially after the release of the heavy GPT-5.5 model) is growing exponentially, while corporations' willingness to pay a premium price for APIs is declining. Yesterday’s 75% dumping by China’s DeepSeek only exacerbates the situation, crushing market margins. Wall Street investors are starting to ask uncomfortable questions: how does the company plan to recoup astronomical infrastructure costs if the basic LLM segment turns into a commoditized market dominated by volume and zero margins.

Source: WSJ / Reuters