OpenAI will keep funding AI data centers despite voter rebuke, CFO says

OpenAI will keep pouring money into artificial intelligence data centers despite voters rejecting the facilities in 40 of 41 local ballot measures across 10 states in Tuesday's midterm elections, CFO Sarah Friar told CNBC on Friday.

"When I think about the midterms, I need to keep thinking about how do we keep investing to meet that customer demand," Friar told CNBC's Sara Eisen in an interview at the Citi TMT Leadership Summit at Pebble Beach, California.

The election results represent the most direct public rebuke yet of the AI infrastructure buildout, and they landed in a week when investors had already turned against the trade. The Nasdaq on Thursday suffered its steepest drop in 19 months, led by a plunge in shares of chipmakers and neoclouds most closely tied to AI data center construction.

What did the voters actually decide?

The scale of the rejection was nearly total. Out of 41 local ballot measures across 10 states, voters backed restrictions or rejected pro-development measures for all but one, according to an analysis by Ballotpedia and additional results gathered by CNBC on Wednesday.

Opposition to the facilities mounted swiftly over the summer. Americans grew worried about their potential to harm the environment, raise utility bills and contribute to job loss. Those local fights have now produced a national political signal that OpenAI, which depends on data centers to train its AI models and serve customers, cannot ignore.

Friar said she does not think the election results dramatically changed anything for the company. Her argument rests on two pillars: existing relationships and continued access to capital.

"It starts early with having built relationships with all of the hyperscalers, and it will continue to mean that we raise capital," Friar said.

How is OpenAI responding on the ground?

The company moved quickly after the votes were counted. On Thursday, OpenAI published a policy blueprint and a series of commitments that it pledged to apply to company-owned and company-operated data centers in the future.

The timing signals that OpenAI sees the problem as one of community trust rather than demand. Friar framed the midterm outcome as an instruction to engage, not retreat.

"If the midterm means more focus on data centers and communities, we're going to keep doing the work to get into those communities and to build trust with them," Friar said.

The context for that posture is a broader cooling in the AI investment climate. Investors have turned skeptical on the AI trade due to a combination of higher borrowing costs, concerns about soaring debt and public backlash toward the industry. A company whose growth model requires tens of billions of dollars in data center spending now faces resistance from both the public and the market.

Friar dismissed the idea that demand itself is in question.

"The demand for AI is real," Friar said. "I don't think anyone's arguing with that, or if they are, I think it's a losing argument."

What is happening with the fundraising and the IPO race?

OpenAI is currently in talks to raise funding at a $1.25 billion pre-money valuation, Friar said Friday. She indicated the round remains open.

"A good CFO always raises money when she can," Friar said.

The comment aligns with her stated strategy that infrastructure investment "will continue to mean that we raise capital." OpenAI confidentially filed its prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June, and Friar said Friday that the company would continue to look into a 2027 debut.

The IPO timeline matters because Anthropic, OpenAI's chief rival, is trying to go public first, with an aim to hit the Nasdaq in mid-November. Anthropic's financials, disclosed in its prospectus, show both the scale of the opportunity and the weight of the commitments behind it:

• Anthropic's revenue in the first nine months of the year jumped roughly 1,200% to $33.2 billion.
• The company has entered into purchase commitments and lease agreements with an aggregate committed spend of about $895.4 billion.
• Anthropic said that spend is "substantially all of which is related to compute and infrastructure."

Those figures quantify the stakes of the data center fight. The two leading AI companies have tied their futures to a buildout that voters across 10 states just rejected, and that investors repriced sharply on Thursday.

Why does this week matter beyond OpenAI?

The collision now underway has three fronts, and this week moved all of them.

First, the political front shifted. Local governments and voters have gained a demonstrated ability to block data center development, with 40 successful restriction or rejection votes in a single election cycle. Companies that assumed permitting friction was the worst obstacle now face organized electoral opposition.

Second, the financial front tightened. Higher borrowing costs, debt concerns and public backlash have made investors skeptical of the AI trade, and the Nasdaq's steepest drop in 19 months on Thursday concentrated the losses in chipmakers and neoclouds — the exact supply chain OpenAI depends on.

Third, the competitive front is accelerating. Anthropic is targeting a mid-November Nasdaq listing ahead of OpenAI's potential 2027 debut, and its prospectus reveals roughly $895.4 billion in committed spend on compute and infrastructure. OpenAI is answering with a funding round at a $1.25 billion pre-money valuation and a policy blueprint for its own data centers published the day after the midterms.

Friar's position is that none of this changes the underlying equation. Demand for AI, in her telling, is not the variable in doubt — the work lies in financing the infrastructure and winning over the communities that host it. The ballot results and the market rout guarantee that both tasks just became harder, and OpenAI's next capital raise, together with Anthropic's November listing, will show whether investors still accept that argument at these prices.