Sarah Friar, OpenAI's CFO, sparked backlash this week with a comment about government support for building AI infrastructure. Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg/Getty Images New York —

OpenAI, the world’s leader and ChatGPT parent company, went into panic mode on Thursday over what it said was a very public misstatement.

Two top executives furiously backtracked from an earlier comment that suggested OpenAI might need government support to cover the $1.4 trillion in chips and data center infrastructure it’s committed to buying.

Here’s how the situation unfolded and why the since-retracted comment was so controversial.

What OpenAI’s CFO said

OpenAI’s Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar raised eyebrows on Wednesday when she suggested that the US government should “backstop” the company

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