OpenAI Says 2026 Will Be a Turning Point for Practical AI Adoption

Microsoft-backed (MSFT) AI firm OpenAI wants 2026 to be the year that its artificial intelligence tools move from impressive demos to everyday use, according to a new blog post from CFO Sarah Friar. More specifically, she said that the main goal is to close the gap between what AI is capable of and how people, companies, and governments actually use it day-to-day. Friar pointed to areas like healthcare, scientific research, and enterprise software as places where better AI can quickly lead to better results.

She also explained that OpenAI’s revenue growth is closely tied to how much computing power it can access. In fact, Friar pointed out that OpenAI’s compute capacity increased from about 0.2 gigawatts in 2023 to roughly 1.9 gigawatts in 2025, while its annual revenue run rate rose from $2 billion to more than $20 billion over the same period. In her view, this shows that more infrastructure directly leads to faster adoption and higher revenue.

As a result, OpenAI has entered major infrastructure partnerships, including a widely discussed agreement with chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) that was announced last September. Indeed, Nvidia said that it would support OpenAI with up to $100 billion in AI systems with at least 10 gigawatts of capacity, which is an amount comparable to the power used by millions of U.S. homes. However, Nvidia later warned investors that there is no guarantee the deal will move forward. Nevertheless, Friar noted that OpenAI now works with multiple compute providers, thereby allowing it to plan and scale more reliably.

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Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on MSFT stock based on 32 Buys and two Holds assigned in the last three months. Furthermore, the average MSFT price target of $631.36 per share implies 37.3% upside potential.

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