OpenAI’s Light Balance Sheet Could Face a Hard Look Before IPO

Few companies have gone public with books as unusual as OpenAI’s. At first glance, the company portrayed by the AI startup’s financial statements, reviewed by The Information, resembles a lean, low-debt software business. Its balance sheet, as at March 31, had zero debt and less than $750 million of lease liabilities. Its cash-flow statement, moreover, showed OpenAI—one of the most hardware-centric tech businesses—spending just $46 million on capital expenditures in the quarter,...