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Interviewed by Bloomberg for a report published Thursday, Friar said that if anything is slowing OpenAI down at all, it’s not a lack of demand, but a lack of compute.

Friar’s remarks came three days after the Wall Street Journal reported Monday (April 27) that OpenAI had fallen short of its internal goals for new users and revenue and that some of the company’s executives, including Friar, were concerned about whether the firm would be able to fund its data center plans if its revenue didn’t grow quickly enough.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday (April 28) that OpenAI described the WSJ report as “prime clickbait” and that the company said its consumer and enterprise businesses are “firing on all cylinders” and “the mood internally is incredibly positive.”

Friar told Bloomberg Thursday that OpenAI may have internal “stretch goals” that are more ambitious than its publicly shared goals, but that demand for the company’s products continues to grow.

“Every company I’ve ever been inside of in my entire CFO life, and as an analyst, always has stretch goals — always,” Friar said, per the report.

The Information reported that OpenAI is projecting a giant shift in subscription revenue but still sees revenues more than doubling to $30 billion this year and reaching $284 billion in 2030.

The report said that while OpenAI has pulled in the bulk of its revenue from consumers’ $20-per-month ChatGPT subscriptions over the last three years, the company now expects that a cheaper, ad-supported subscription tier will attract new users but also lead existing subscribers to downgrade. The company hopes to generate more revenue by selling ads to more users than depending on its existing flagship monthly subscription service, ChatGPT Plus.

It was reported April 9 that OpenAI expects its nascent advertising business to generate $2.5 billion in revenue this year and surge to $100 billion by the end of the decade. The report said the company’s projections underscore its push to monetize its user base to help fund the soaring costs of developing its AI technology.

The new company, Oro Mobility, said in a Thursday (April 30) press release that its first major partner is Uber.

Oro and Uber have formed strategic fleet partnerships in which Oro will provide operational and maintenance services for Uber’s autonomous and driver-led operations in key U.S. markets, according to the release.

For Uber’s autonomous robotaxi program, Oro will provide charging, maintenance, repairs, cleaning, depot staffing and other day-to-day vehicle asset management services. The companies plan to launch this collaboration in the San Francisco Bay Area by the end of the year and then consider expanding it in 2027.

For Uber’s driver-led operations, Oro will provide a fleet of vehicles maintained by the company and operated by Oro-employed drivers. The companies successfully piloted this partnership in Atlanta last year, later expanded it to Los Angeles and San Francisco, and now plan to extend it to Northern New Jersey this spring.

“This partnership with Uber establishes Oro as an integrated solution that connects demand with scalable fleet management services,” Hertz CEO Gil West said in the release. “Through this work, we’re deepening our capabilities across diverse mobility use cases, and positioning Hertz to play a significant role as the industry evolves.”

Uber President and Chief Operating Officer Andrew Macdonald said in the release that the partnership with Oro will help Uber transition to a network that includes both driver-led and autonomous rideshare operations.

“By combining Uber’s global platform and marketplace leadership with Oro’s dedicated fleet management expertise, we are well-equipped to meet increasing rideshare demand and deliver a seamless, high-quality rider experience across the entire mobility ecosystem,” Macdonald said.

Uber and carmaker Rivian announced in March that they have teamed up to deploy 10,000 fully autonomous Rivian R2 robotaxis, starting in Miami and San Francisco in 2028 and then expanding to 25 cities by 2031. The companies aim to have thousands of robotaxis deployed across 25 cities in the U.S., Canada and Europe by the end of 2021.

That is a central finding from “The 2025-2026 Growth Corporates Working Capital Index,” a Visa and PYMNTS Intelligence report based on a survey of 1,457 CFOs and treasurers across 23 countries, five regions and 10 industry groups. The report shows that growth corporates, often described as middle market companies, are using external working capital tools to manage volatility, support expansion and build resilience heading into 2026. These companies generate enough scale to power local, regional and global economies, but many remain underserved by traditional financial providers.

The CFO angle is clear. Finance leaders are not only trying to cover shortfalls. They are trying to make cash flow more predictable. That means using working capital to fund capital investments, buy inventory, expand into new markets, upgrade systems and pay strategic suppliers faster.

The findings point to a more active model of treasury management, where liquidity is used with more precision.

• 65% of European growth corporates use new forms of AI for working capital efficiency. The report defines those uses as including financial planning, forecasting, scenario modeling, invoice processing, reporting and customer or supplier onboarding. LAC follows at 62%, APAC at 61%, CEMEA at 59% and North America at 42%.
• 61% of North American growth corporates use card acceptance as a strategy to reduce days sales outstanding. Europe follows at 54%, LAC at 53%, APAC at 50% and CEMEA at 45%. For CFOs, that points to a practical way to convert receivables into usable cash sooner.
• Growth corporates in LAC lose an average 5.0% of revenue chasing late payments from business customers. The comparable figures are 4.0% in Europe, 3.6% in CEMEA, 3.5% in APAC and 3.0% in North America. That shows why payment speed and visibility remain high on the CFO agenda.

The positive read is that finance teams have more tools than they did a few years ago. AI can help forecast cash needs. Card acceptance can help shorten collections. External working capital can help CFOs act before cash pressure turns into a constraint.

The report also finds measurable benefits from using external working capital solutions. Average bottom-line benefits range from 3.1% of revenue in North America to 5.0% in LAC. In dollar terms, those benefits range from $13.4 million in North America to $24.1 million in Europe, based on the underlying revenue estimates in the report.

That does not mean every sector or region faces the same trade-offs. Agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing, construction, retail, travel and technology each show different working capital patterns. Some sectors face heavier late-payment costs. Others show stronger AI adoption. Still, the broader story is consistent.

CFOs are being asked to do more than preserve liquidity. They are being asked to turn liquidity into an operating advantage. The data suggests many are already moving in that direction.

But according to the January 2026 “Wage to Wallet™ Index: The Divided Recovery: Labor Economy Workers Face an Uncertain 2026,” a collaboration between PYMNTS Intelligence, WorkWhile and Ingo Payments, the financial lives of consumers, particularly lower- and middle-income workers, are increasingly shaped by volatility, including flat income expectations, rising expenses and limited confidence in future earnings.

And if consumers are focused on avoiding financial slippage rather than maximizing spending, the payment and FinTech industry’s value proposition changes.

In such an environment, success is measured less by how often a card is used and more by whether the user avoids late fees, maintains a positive balance or manages to build modest savings.

This opens the door to what might be termed “outcome-based payments,” meaning products that are evaluated, and potentially priced, according to their ability to improve financial health metrics.

Payments as Infrastructure for Labor Markets

In a world where users are trying to avoid falling behind, winning products will be judged not by activity, but by financial outcomes. Early examples of this type of innovation include alerts that help users avoid overdrafts, automated savings features that skim small amounts after each pay cycle and dashboards that track progress in reducing debt.

Still, for providers, this represents both an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity lies in deeper engagement and differentiation. The challenge is that these outcomes are harder to measure, and in some cases require integration with credit, savings and employment data.

The “Labor Economy” described in the PYMNTS report encompasses workers in logistics, retail, hospitality and care. These are all roles that are essential to economic functioning but often characterized by variable hours and modest wages. These workers account for a substantial share of consumer spending and, by extension, economic growth.

For this segment, the way income is delivered and managed is not a peripheral issue. It is central to financial resilience. The same PYMNTS data shows that a significant share of workers do not expect their financial situation to improve in the coming year, with many prioritizing stability over advancement.

Against this backdrop, credit-led growth models may encounter resistance if consumers are wary of taking on additional obligations. At the same time, rewards and incentives tied to higher spending may resonate less with users focused on controlling outflows.

Read the report: Wage to Wallet™ Index: The Divided Recovery: Labor Economy Workers Face an Uncertain 2026

If the primary user need is stability, then payment begins to resemble a utility: a foundational service that underpins day-to-day economic activity, rather than a feature layered on top of it. Like utilities in other sectors, its value is judged by reliability and consistency as much as by performance.

Employers and labor platforms are beginning to recognize this. Features such as earned wage access, instant payouts and integrated financial tools are positioned not as perks, but as components of the employment offer. In a tight labor market, the ability to provide predictable and flexible access to earnings can influence retention and participation.

This blurs the boundaries between payments, human resources and financial services. Payroll systems are evolving into financial interfaces; gig platforms are embedding banking-like functionality; and payments providers are finding themselves closer to the core of employment relationships than at any point in the past.

For payments companies, this suggests a reorientation. The competitive edge may lie not in enabling incremental consumption, but in reducing the likelihood of financial disruption.