Like it or not, it's safe to assume AI will be a conversation that defines the rest of the 2020s.

The recent launch of OpenAI's latest model, GPT-5, comes as ChatGPT ascends to the fifth most-visited website in the world, ahead of Wikipedia, Reddit, TikTok and Amazon. In just three short years, the software has upended education, scrambled the tech labor sector, and ushered in something of a pandemic of chatbot-related mental health problems.

But for all those technocratic bona fides, the software that's said to be kicking off the next industrial revolution has one major hurdle to clear: it has yet to make any real money.

Despite some terrific promises about GPT-5's capabilities — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman went as far as to compare the chatbot update to the Manhattan Project last month — the model's actual improvements are seriously underwhelming, putting a damper on our timeline to reach the AI singularity.

While that doesn't really change much for the average Joe, it does tighten the immense financial pressure facing OpenAI and its peers.

Thanks to the ridiculous cost of running millions of energy-intensive AI queries every day, the company is struggling to make a dent in its expenditures, as the vast majority of users remain content to use its free model. Out of 700 million weekly users, OpenAI says only 5 million of them actively pay for their services.

Put into monetary terms, in 2024, OpenAI was burning through $2.50 for every dollar it brought in. Given that most successful startups take anywhere from 3-5 years to turn a profit, that might not necessarily sound like a death knell. After all, they're going to keep growing, right?

However, current analysis suggests that OpenAI — now six years into its growth strategy — won't reach a positive cash flow until 2029 at the earliest, and that's if everything goes according to plan.

That might be well and good in China, where low-cost AI architects like DeepSeek are free to prioritize long-term research and development without pressure from third-party investors. But in the US, where a few massive tech monopolies rule the roost, time is money — and firms like OpenAI are spending their investors' cash like water going through a data center.

As Reuters pointed out in a recent analysis, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft — the latter of which is backing OpenAI — expect to spend upwards of $400 billion to keep the AI dream alive in 2025 alone. The promise of that kind of spending has sent tech shares through the roof, with Microsoft becoming the world's second $4 trillion company this summer.

Those numbers might sound high now, but what they really signal is investor confidence that companies like OpenAI — currently valued at a hefty $300 billion — will continue to grow in a way never before seen in history.

Whether they'll ultimately succeed depends on the tech itself. If the lackluster release of GPT-5 is any indication, the tech industry has a long climb ahead of it — and it's all loose rock from here.