AI is a game of kings, and OpenAI knows it

Published 08/10/2025, 18:12
© Reuters

Investing.com -- OpenAI is moving at “a breakneck pace of innovation,” but DA Davidson warned the company may be stretching itself too thin. 

In a new note, the firm called the artificial intelligence leader “the biggest case yet of Silicon Valley’s vaunted fake it ’till you make it ethos.”

“AI is a game of kings, and OpenAI knows it,” DA Davidson said, adding that the “staggering amount of compute required to build increasingly powerful frontier models” means that only a handful of companies, “MSFT, AMZN, GOOGL, META and Elon Inc,” can afford to compete.

According to the firm, “OpenAI has the lead with the top frontier model and the top AI chat app, and is trying to leverage that lead to become an instant mega cap.” 

But its dominance “is still somewhat tenuous,” as “Google has made significant strides,” while “Anthropic is state-of-the-art for programming,” and “Meta and Elon are deploying tens of billions to catch up.”

DA Davidson said OpenAI is “likely at a $16bn revenue run rate” but “losing around $10bn this year.” Despite that, it “has embarked on its ambitious attempt to fake it ‘till you make it,” with “commitments now exceeding $500bn.”

“This is working so far,” the firm said, citing “the recent release of Sora 2,” which “represents a breakthrough in democratizing video generation.” 

The firm concluded, “We prefer core AI winners MSFT and NVDA,” saying that “even if OpenAI does not ultimately succeed in becoming an instant mega cap, NVDA will have plenty of demand for its chips and MSFT will have plenty of AI customers.”

 

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