Core Points

• OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sara Freer stated on Friday that despite the results of the mid-term elections being out, the company will continue to invest in artificial intelligence infrastructure.
• Voters in many parts of the United States voted for candidates on Tuesday who promised to impose restrictions on data center construction.
• OpenAI is rapidly iterating new services and large models, and is advancing the IPO process. There is an urgent need to build the supporting infrastructure as soon as possible.

OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sara Freer stated on Friday that even though voters expressed strong opposition to data centers during the mid-term elections on Tuesday, companies will continue to invest in artificial intelligence infrastructure.

This interview took place at the Citibank TMT Industry Leaders Summit held in Pebble Beach, California. During an interview with host Sara Eisen, Freil stated: "When looking at these mid-term elections, the first thing I think about is how we can continue to invest to meet the needs of our customers. On one hand, we have established partnerships with major hyperscale cloud providers quite early on; on the other hand, this also means that we will continue to pursue financing as well."

According to the statistics from Vote Encyclopedia ( Ballotpedia ) and the additional election results summarized on Wednesday: out of a total of 41 local referendum proposals in 10 states, only one proposal that imposed restrictions was not passed; the rest were all proposals supported by voters that restricted construction or opposed development. This summer, public opposition to data centers has risen rapidly, with concerns that they will damage the environment, increase utility bills, and may also lead to job losses.

Training the AI model and providing services to users are both inseparable from data centers. Freer believes that the mid-term elections will not bring any disruptive changes to OpenAI.

"If the mid-term elections draw more attention to the conflicts between data centers and local communities, then we will continue our work, go into those communities, and build mutual trust with them," said Freer.

Concerned by rising borrowing costs and a surge in debt levels, coupled with public opinion's resistance to the AI industry, investors have recently become more cautious towards the AI sector. On Thursday, the NASDAQ index recorded its largest single-day decline in 19 months, with chip companies that are highly tied to AI infrastructure and new cloud service providers leading the market down.