There is one thing on the mind of CFOs at AI companies: computing power. As their firms race to dominate Silicon Valley—and outdo each other—OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar AND Anthropic CFO Krishna Rao are focused on raising funds, securing chip deals, and tracking computing demand.
Computing power is a “great competitive advantageespecially in a landscape where “there’s not much calculation in 2026,” Friar, 53, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV today (May 15). Securing sufficient capacity to meet demand is particularly challenging OpenAIwhich has more than 900 million weekly active users of ChatGPT and an entrepreneurial sales team “raged” by businesses eager to adopt its models.
Prior to joining OpenAI, Friar was the CEO of near from 2018 to 2024 and spent six years as CFO of Squarethe following roles in Salesforce, Goldman Sachs and McKinsey.
AnthropogenicOpenAI’s main rival, is equally focused on providing chips. “The computing we procure is the lifeblood of our business“It’s the most important thing in the company,” Rao, 43, said on an episode of the show Invest like the best podcast published on May 13. He added that he spends 30 percent to 40 percent of his time on calculation-related decisions.
Like Friar, Rao is about two years into his current role. He previously served as CFO of Fanatics and Cedar, after a six-year period in Airbnb and previously worked as a senior associate at The Black Stone.
Both executives face a delicate balancing act: deciding how many accounts to secure as their companies rapidly scale. These are “some of the most important and difficult decisions” a business can make, Rao said. Overcalculation risks overspending; very little leaves the customer’s demand unfulfilled. “You have to really think ahead to plan this.”
To meet their needs, both companies rely on a mix of suppliers. Mainly anthropogenic uses Nvidia gpu, Google TPU and AmazonTranium chips of. OpenAI also works with Nvidia and Amazon, including AMD chips, developing internal hardware with Broadcom and setting the calculation from Cerebras Systems, which was released yesterday (May 14).
The high cost of AI infrastructure has fueled crowdfunding. “It’s a capital-intensive business,” Rao said. When he joined Anthropic, the company was closing a $750 million round at a $15 billion valuation. It is now is said to be seeking a $30 billion round that could value it at $900 billion— potentially surpassing OpenAI, which was valued at $852 billion in March after a $122 billion injection.
OpenAI is also considering raising additional funds. While its recent twelve-figure raise “gives us a lot of options,” Friar said she’s not “averse to raising more capital.”
Founded a decade ago, OpenAI has long led the AI race. But Anthropic, launched in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, is rapidly closing the gap. Its revenue rate topped $30 billion in April, up from $9 billion by the end of 2025. OpenAI reported $24 billion in annual revenue as of March, though the numbers are not directly comparable, as OpenAI does not include cloud partner sales.
Both companies are also moving toward the public markets in what could be two of Silicon Valley’s most anticipated IPOs. Anthropic’s offer can reach the end of the yearwhile OpenAI’s it could come in the second half of 2026.
Despite calling private markets “too generous for us,” Friar said public markets offer greater scale over time. “We want to be able, in the long term, to raise money across the spectrum – and the public markets are significantly bigger.”
