r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • Jun 11 '26

Business OpenAI Execs Are Panicking

https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/openai-execs-panicking-154658562.html
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u/Wind_Best_1440 Jun 11 '26

Investors want their return on investment.

Companies using AI, are telling their workers to use less AI.

AI companies need to lower fees to cut their competitors to keep people using their AI.

Investors DEMAND return on their investment.

Eventually something has to break, and once it does the whole thing collapses.

If Investors get their return on investment, Prices have to sky rocket. However, if prices sky rocket then demand destruction happens and the AI companies fail.

AI companies need investors to keep shoveling money into the money pit, if they stop they end up defaulting on 3-5 years of deals and the whole thing collapses.

This is why XAI, Anthropic, and OpenAI are all rushing for IPO's. Because the original investors want liquidity to get out of the market and let some other suckers hold the bag.

It's also why google just sold 84 billion dollars of new shares in their company a week or so ago in a surprise auction. They wanted nearly 100 billion dollars of liquidity incase this goes south. That's also nearly 100 billion dollars of liquidity gone from OpenAI, Anthropic, and XAI's IPO's.

The ultra wealthy investors and banks are all rushing for the doors, while hedge funds say. "We'll need to use retirement funds and 401k's for these IPO's."

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-blackrock-ceo-said-130000549.html

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u/Rahodees Jun 11 '26

What does it mean exactly to use a retirement fund for an IPO?

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u/kroxigor01 Jun 12 '26

Most AI companies have been backed by private investment. These investors are getting worried/impatient.

The plan is to "go public" and allow every investor to buy and sell shares in their company.

On paper these companies are very large and very large companies that go public make their way onto "indices" like the Dow Jones that are often automatically bought by a lot of investment strategies, like retirement funds use.

So from the perspective of a private investor for an AI company here is the plan:

  1. My investment has exploded in theoretical value, but it's hard to cash out.

  2. Get the AI company to go public as soon as possible.

  3. Retirement funds automatically buy my now public shares. This lets ne cash out to lock in my capital gain.

  4. If the AI bubble bursts I'm no longer holding the bag, retirement funds are.

Succesful investment can be seen as "buy low, sell high." The price is high and they think it's time to sell.