OpenAI is burning through tens of billions of dollars a year, and the bill for that is quietly being spread across everyday people's retirement accounts, electricity bills, and taxes.

• OpenAI's revenue tripled in 2025 but it still lost over $20 billion, a hole far bigger than any startup loss in history.
• To keep building bigger data centers, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Oracle are funneling money in a circular loop between each other, making all three look like they're growing even though the cash just moves in a circle.
• Nvidia is now guaranteeing huge loans for OpenAI's data centers because OpenAI's finances aren't strong enough to borrow on its own, echoing the risky vendor-financing deals that blew up in the dot-com bust.
• Regular people are already exposed: AI stocks dominate the S&P 500 so a 401(k) can swing on OpenAI's fortunes, power bills are rising because data centers are straining the electric grid, and officials have floated taxpayer-backed loan guarantees and a government stake in the company.
• When OpenAI eventually goes public, new stock-index rules mean pension and index funds will be forced to automatically buy its shares, whether that's a good bet or not.

Outlook: OpenAI isn't expected to collapse outright, but if its huge bet on future revenue doesn't pay off, ordinary savers, taxpayers, and electricity customers — not venture investors — will absorb the losses.