‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli Says He Is An OpenAI Shareholder, Dismisses Reports Of Company Missing Targets

• The reported internal shortfalls come as OpenAI — now structured as a for-profit entity valued at around $852 billion as of late March — races toward an eventual IPO.
• Separately, billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday took the stand as part of his lawsuit, which alleges that Sam Altman and the company breached their founding agreement and charitable trust by shifting to a for-profit model.
• On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around OPENAI trended in ‘extremely bullish’ territory amid ‘extremely high’ message volume on Tuesday.

Former hedge fund manager and pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli on Tuesday flatly rejected a Wall Street Journal report that OpenAI missed key internal revenue and user-growth targets for its flagship ChatGPT product in 2025.

In a direct reply on X to a post summarizing the WSJ story, Shkreli wrote simply: “This is 100% bullshit.”

The WSJ report, published Monday, cited unnamed people familiar with the matter in claiming that OpenAI failed to hit an internal goal of reaching 1 billion weekly active users for ChatGPT by the end of 2025. It also said the company missed its yearly revenue target for the chatbot, as Google’s Gemini made significant gains in market share late last year, and subscriber defection rates rose. OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar reportedly told company leaders she was concerned the firm would struggle to meet its spending commitments if revenue growth did not accelerate.

In follow-up replies on Tuesday, Shkreli confirmed he became a shareholder in OpenAI before he met his partner, an engineer at OpenAI, and emphasized that he was not speaking on behalf of the company.

OpenAI has not issued a public comment on the WSJ article. The company has previously disclosed strong top-line growth: in January 2026, CFO Friar stated in a blog post that OpenAI’s annualized revenue had surpassed $20 billion in 2025, up from roughly $6 billion in 2024, with weekly and daily active user figures continuing to hit all-time highs.

The reported internal shortfalls come as OpenAI — now structured as a for-profit entity valued at around $852 billion as of late March — races toward an eventual IPO while burning substantial cash on massive compute infrastructure. Analysts and investors have closely watched ChatGPT’s growth trajectory amid intensifying competition from Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, and other large language models. OpenAI continues to push aggressive expansion plans, including new model releases and enterprise offerings, even as questions about sustainable profitability and market share persist.

Musk-OpenAI Lawsuit

Separately, billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday took the stand as part of his lawsuit, which alleges that Sam Altman and the company breached their founding agreement and charitable trust by shifting to a for-profit model, prioritizing commercial interests, and entering a close partnership with Microsoft. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI with Altman, is seeking the ouster of Altman and President Greg Brockman, the unwinding of OpenAI’s for-profit structure, and more than $150 billion in damages—money he has pledged to redirect to the original nonprofit arm rather than keep personally.

“If we make it okay to loot a charity, the entire foundation of charitable giving in America will be destroyed," Musk testified on the first day of the trial, as reported by Reuters. "That’s my concern.”

How Did Retail Traders React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around OPENAI trended in ‘extremely bullish’ territory amid ‘extremely high’ message volume on Tuesday. 

Read More: TSLA FSD Won’t Sell Itself Without Major Marketing Push, Fund Manager Says

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.