OpenAI's data center pivot underscores Wall Street spending concerns ahead of IPO

OpenAI is shifting away from its aggressive spending plans to build massive data centers, instead focusing on purchasing cloud computing capacity from other providers. CEO Sam Altman acknowledged that running data centers at this scale is difficult, citing severe weather events and supply chain challenges at their Texas facility (part of the $500 billion Stargate project with Oracle and SoftBank), and the company is facing pressure from investors to demonstrate more responsible spending before its planned IPO (initial public offering, when a private company becomes publicly traded).