Digital
George Noble flags trouble at OpenAI in viral X post
MUMBAI: A single viral post has reignited a familiar Silicon Valley anxiety. Is the artificial intelligence boom racing ahead of its own economics?
Over the weekend, investor and commentator George Noble published a lengthy note on X that bluntly questioned OpenAI’s finances, leadership stability and long term prospects. The post quickly gained traction, not because it revealed new filings or announcements, but because it stitched together rumours, analyst estimates and user frustration into a sharply worded warning about one of the world’s most valuable AI firms.
Why it matters goes well beyond OpenAI. The company sits at the heart of the current AI investment cycle, propped up by big tech capital, vast data centres and soaring expectations. If even a fraction of Noble’s claims prove accurate, it would strengthen the argument that AI’s costs are rising faster than its returns, just as competitors close the gap and regulators circle.
Noble argues that OpenAI is struggling to balance three pressures at once: intensifying competition from Google’s Gemini, eye watering compute and energy bills, and growing legal and governance scrutiny. He also suggests that recent product updates have failed to impress users in the way earlier releases did, raising uncomfortable questions about diminishing returns.
OpenAI has not publicly responded to the post. Many of the figures cited are based on analyst estimates or second hand accounts, and supporters say the company is investing aggressively to secure long term dominance rather than chasing short term profit. Even so, the thread has struck a nerve at a moment when investors are already reassessing lofty AI valuations.
Below is George Noble’s post on X, reproduced in full, which has fuelled the debate.
OpenAI IS FALLING APART IN REAL TIME
I’ve watched companies implode for decades.
This one has all the warning signs.
OpenAI declared “Code Red” in December.
Altman sent an internal memo telling employees to drop everything because Google’s Gemini 3 is eating their lunch.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff publicly ditched ChatGPT for Gemini after using it for two hours.
ChatGPT traffic fell in November.
Second month-over-month decline of 2025.
Meanwhile Gemini jumped to 650 million monthly active users.
The company that was supposed to build AGI can’t keep its chatbot competitive.
But the real story is the money.
OpenAI lost $12 BILLION in a single quarter according to Microsoft’s own fiscal disclosures.
Deutsche Bank estimates $143 billion in cumulative negative cash flow before the company turns profitable.
Their analysts put it bluntly:
“No startup in history has operated with losses on anything approaching this scale.”
They’re burning $15 million per day on Sora alone.
$5 billion annually to generate copyright-infringing memes.
Even Sora’s lead engineer admitted the “economics are currently completely unsustainable.”
Here’s the big math problem nobody wants to discuss.
It’s going to cost 5x the energy and money to make these models 2x better.
The low-hanging fruit is gone.
Every incremental improvement now requires exponentially more compute, more data centers, more power.
Reports suggest OpenAI’s large training runs in 2025 failed to produce models better than prior versions.
GPT-5 launched to widespread disappointment.
Users called it “underwhelming” and “horrible.”
OpenAI had to restore GPT-4o within 24 hours because users preferred the old model.
Altman had promised GPT-5 would make GPT-4 feel “mildly embarrassing.”
Instead, users complained it was worse at basic math and geography.
They’ve released GPT-5.1, GPT-5.2 since.
Same complaints each time: too corporate, too safe, robotic, boring.
The talent exodus makes this even worse.
CTO Mira Murati. Gone.
Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew. Gone.
Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever. Gone.
President Greg Brockman. Gone.
Half the AI safety team departed.
Multiple executives reportedly cited “psychological abuse” under Altman’s leadership.
And now Elon Musk is suing for up to $134 billion.
A federal judge just ruled the case goes to jury trial in April.
There’s “plenty of evidence” that OpenAI’s leaders promised to maintain the nonprofit structure that Musk funded.
Musk provided $38 million in early funding based on those assurances.
Now he wants his share of the $500 billion valuation.
OpenAI called it “harassment.”
But the judge disagreed.
Here’s what I think happens next.
The AI hype cycle is peaking.
The diminishing returns are becoming impossible to hide.
Competitors are catching up.
The lawsuits are piling up.
OpenAI needs to generate $200 billion in annual revenue by 2030 to justify their projections.
That’s 15x growth in five years while costs keep exploding.
Even Sam Altman admitted investors are “overexcited” about AI.
His exact words: “Someone is going to lose a phenomenal amount of money.”
If I were running an AI startup with good traction right now, I’d be looking for an exit.
Sell into the hype before the music stops.
My positioning:
I’m not touching OpenAI-adjacent plays at these valuations.
The risk profile is astronomical.
If you’re exposed to the Magnificent 7 through AI infrastructure bets, consider trimming.
The gap between promised revolution and delivered reality has never been wider.
The smart money is rotating into sectors where valuations actually reflect fundamentals.
Small and mid-caps are trading near decade lows relative to Big Tech while earnings growth is only marginally lower.
Markets can price risk.
But they can’t price chaos.
And OpenAI is chaos dressed up in a $500 billion valuation.
Whether the post proves prescient or overblown, it has done its job. It has reopened the uncomfortable question shadowing the AI boom: how long can belief outrun balance sheets?
Digital
AI drives 92 per cent surge to 15M views across India’s open web
Taboola data shows rising AI curiosity reshaping digital consumption trends
MUMBAI: Artificial intelligence is fast becoming the internet’s favourite topic in India, with fresh data showing a sharp spike in audience interest across the open web.
Insights from Taboola’s Taboola Newsroom reveal that AI-related content generated more than 15 million pageviews over the past 90 days, marking a striking 92 per cent jump compared to the previous 45-day period. The surge signals a clear shift, with AI moving from niche tech chatter to mainstream digital curiosity.
The broader technology category is also seeing momentum, clocking around 1.7 million pageviews and a 27 per cent rise in engagement. However, much of that growth appears to be riding on the AI wave, as developments in artificial intelligence increasingly dominate tech narratives.
Within the AI ecosystem, newer players are quickly capturing attention. Content linked to Anthropic alone drew roughly 2.5 million pageviews, registering a dramatic 2,096 per cent surge. The spike reflects growing interest in alternative AI models and emerging competitors in the space.
Meanwhile, familiar names continue to hold steady ground. Coverage around ChatGPT generated about 1.2 million pageviews, underlining sustained curiosity as users explore practical applications, updates, and everyday use cases for generative AI tools.
Big Tech is firmly in the spotlight too. Content related to Meta attracted approximately 2.2 million pageviews, up 30 per cent, as audiences track its expanding role in AI infrastructure and innovation.
Taken together, the data points to a deeper shift in how audiences engage with AI. Interest is no longer tied only to big announcements but is evolving into a steady stream of exploration around tools, platforms, and real-world uses.
For publishers, this opens the door to richer storytelling through explainers and practical insights. For advertisers, it presents a chance to tap into a highly engaged, tech-savvy audience.
If the numbers are anything to go by, AI is not just part of the conversation anymore, it is leading it.
