Will OpenAI ever make real money?

BEING SAM ALTMAN is a glamorous gig. Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 the boss of its creator, OpenAI, has turned into a global business superstar. He is the darling of both the starch-collared Davos set and Silicon Valley’s dishevelled techno-Utopians. He hangs out with everyone from Katy Perry to Donald Trump, whom he accompanied on a visit to Saudi Arabia this week. It would shock no one if by its next funding round his startup, currently worth $300bn, overtook SpaceX and ByteDance to become the world’s most valuable unlisted firm. The AI wunderkind recently told the Financial Times that he has the “coolest, most important job maybe in history”. No kidding.