After going through a phase of technological breakthroughs, OpenAI has officially turned its attention to more practically valuable areas. Recently, Sarah Friar, OpenAI's Chief Financial Officer, revealed in an official blog post that the company's core focus for 2026 will be "practical adoption." This means OpenAI will work to bridge the gap between AI's current capabilities and users' real-world needs.

Although OpenAI has invested heavily in infrastructure—its infrastructure commitment reached about $140 billion by November last year—Friar emphasized that the real opportunity lies in transforming higher-level intelligence into tangible outputs. Especially in fields such as healthcare, scientific research, and enterprise services, improvements in AI intelligence can directly enhance business outcomes.

With the evolution of its business model, OpenAI's active user base continues to break historical records. To support its massive expenses and achieve a commercial closed loop, OpenAI has been very active recently, including announcing the upcoming introduction of advertisements on its platform and launching more affordable ChatGPT Go subscription services globally. Friar predicts that in the future, AI may give rise to new economic models based on licensing, intellectual property, or outcome-based payments, similar to the development path of the Internet.

Key points:

🎯 Strategic shift towards practicality: OpenAI has clearly set 2026's goal as "practical adoption," focusing on bridging the gap between technical capabilities and real-world user applications.

💰 Heavy investment in infrastructure: The company has made significant infrastructure investments totaling $140 billion, aiming to drive business scalability through a "flywheel effect" involving computing power, research, products, and monetization.

📈 Continuous exploration of business models: In addition to existing subscription models, OpenAI is introducing advertising and more affordable plans, and it anticipates the emergence of new economic models based on outcome-based payment in the future.