Squawk on the Street · Nov 6, 2026 · 44m · 38m saved
With Sarah Friar, CFO of OpenAI · Heath Terry, Head of AI Research at Citi · Gary Stern, Former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
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Sarah Friar, CFO of OpenAI, told Squawk on the Street that OpenAI's business grew 70% quarter over quarter in the third quarter, with 1.2 billion people now using ChatGPT every week. Citi's Heath Terry, speaking from the same Pebble Beach conference, called this week's historic AI selloff a supply problem rather than a demand one. Former Minneapolis Fed president Gary Stern said the October jobs report gives the Fed every reason to stay tight.
"The demand for AI is real. At OpenAI, we're building a durable, strong business." — Sarah Friar
Sarah has run OpenAI's finances through a stretch in which enterprise revenue doubled and new customers like JPMorgan Chase signed on for cybersecurity work alone. Heath and Gary each squared off one of the week's two biggest macro questions.
The full segment is covered here so you can skip it. 44 minutes of audio, 6 minutes of reading.
Here are the 7 calls that matter.
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Key Takeaways
Citi says the AI selloff is "structural," not a demand problem — the market had to absorb roughly $200 billion in capital raises in a single week
Over 500 data-center moratoriums existed before Tuesday's election, undercutting the idea that the midterms caused the pullback
The US built just 11 of the 40 gigawatts of data-center capacity announced a year ago
OpenAI's Q3 revenue grew 70% quarter over quarter and enterprise business doubled, with JPMorgan Chase signing on for cybersecurity work
OpenAI is funding free school lunches and a 300-foot noise berm near its data centers to defuse local opposition
Gary Stern says the case for keeping rates tight is "strong and straightforward" after a stronger-than-expected October jobs report
Gary Stern calls the 30-year yield "pretty reasonable" and expects it to drift back up
1. A Rout, Not a Verdict
Heath Terry, Citi's head of AI research, spoke to CNBC's Sara Eisen from Citigroup's TMT conference in Pebble Beach. It was the morning after the Nasdaq's sharpest one-day drop in a year and a half.
Heath says this week's rout is "structural," not a reassessment of AI demand
"I think it's a part of the AI trade, right. There is going to be a lot of volatility in this." — Heath Terry
He argues the mechanism is supply, not sentiment. The market had to absorb roughly $200 billion in capital raises in a single week, as Meta, Broadcom and SpaceX all tapped it, with more such deals expected. Despite the drawdown, he says his optimism on the AI trade is "fully intact" because end-customer demand hasn't changed.
"The market was asked to come up with $200 billion, really more than that, last week between Meta raising money, Broadcom raising money, SpaceX raising money." — Heath Terry
