The Trial Balance is CFO.com’s weekly preview of stories, stats and events to help you prepare.
Part 1 — OpenAI finds ‘Frontier Alliances’ in revenue push
OpenAI announced on Monday that it has entered into multi-year partnerships with Accenture, Boston Consulting Group, Capgemini and McKinsey & Company, formalizing a consulting ecosystem around its new enterprise platform as competition in the artificial intelligence market intensifies.
The agreements, which the ChatGPT maker is calling “Frontier Alliances,” are tied to the company’s recently launched Frontier Platform, an intelligence layer linking internal data and systems. Consulting partners will help enterprise customers define AI strategies, build governance frameworks and integrate AI agents into day-to-day operations. The company did not disclose financial terms, according to CNBC.
The alliances arrive as OpenAI deepens its enterprise strategy while facing growing attention on how its long-term spending plans align with future revenue expectations. CFO Sarah Friar said earlier this year that corporate customers account for roughly 40% of the company’s revenue today and could approach half of its business by year’s end. The enterprise focus aligns with ambitious long-term projections. OpenAI generated $13.1 billion in revenue last year and is targeting more than $280 billion annually by 2030, according to people familiar with internal forecasts shared with CNBC.
OpenAI executives said the consulting firms will build dedicated practice groups certified on its technology and work alongside forward deployed engineers embedded within customer organizations. The partnerships also give OpenAI access to long-standing enterprise relationships that consulting firms maintain across industries.
At the same time, after a significant blunder by Friar, OpenAI and its leadership are refining how it communicates its infrastructure plans to investors. The company is now targeting roughly $600 billion in total compute spending by the end of the decade, offering a more defined timeline after earlier infrastructure ambitions stretched into the trillion-dollar range.
Investor scrutiny around those plans has grown alongside the company’s rapid valuation rise. During an interview with Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner in late-November 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed questions about whether projected infrastructure spending of $1.4 trillion is outpacing the company’s 2025 revenue figures. Altman responded to Gerstner by saying “first of all, we’re doing well more revenue than [$13.1 billion], and second of all, Brad, if you want to sell your shares, I will find you a buyer. Just enough.”
The consulting sector itself is also undergoing structural changes tied to AI adoption. Many firms operate under an “up or out” model, where junior consultants are expected to progress within a defined period or transition out of the organization. As firms reassess hiring pipelines, productivity expectations and how they identify and develop talent, the ability to demonstrate effective use of AI may increasingly signal potential among junior consultants.
The broader competitive landscape is also shaping OpenAI’s strategy. Rivals, including Google and Anthropic, continue to pursue enterprise customers, and OpenAI has emphasized product improvements after a temporary slowdown in chatbot growth last year. Usage has since returned to record highs, with roughly 900 million weekly active users across ChatGPT, according to people familiar with the company’s metrics cited by CNBC.
Part 2 — This week
Here’s a list of important market events slated for the week ahead.
Monday, Feb. 23
- U.S. factory orders, Dec.
Tuesday, Feb. 24
- Consumer confidence, Feb.
- S&P Case-Shiller home price index, Dec.
Wednesday, Feb. 25 — None scheduled.
Thursday, Feb. 26
Friday, Feb. 27
- Producer price index, Jan.
- Core PPI, Jan.
- Chicago Business Barometer, Feb.
Part 3 — Weekly listen: BTM Global Consulting CFO on staying ‘cool as a cucumber’
Judy Wright, CFO of BTM Global and incoming 2026 president of FEI Twin Cities, used a recent appearance on the FEI Icons podcast to highlight how leadership expectations for finance chiefs are shifting alongside technology changes and evolving career paths. Wright described her early decision to leave a stable job and become a street vendor in China as a test of resilience, saying the experience proved she could “survive in the situation like that” and shaped how she approaches pressure and risk inside the CFO role.
Much of the conversation centered on leadership signals that resonate with today’s finance environment. Wright emphasized composure as a defining trait of finance leaders, noting, “If we’re freaking out, a lot of people will be freaking out,” and adding that strong leaders maintain calm because “as long as the finance side is a cool cucumber, everybody else feels steady.” She also warned that many executives remain too focused on daily execution, arguing that networking and continuous education are essential because “just doing your job is not enough” as markets and roles evolve.
Wright pointed to AI as a force reshaping early career development in finance, saying technology can now perform much of the work traditionally assigned to entry-level professionals. She encouraged younger leaders to balance foundational knowledge with new tools, explaining that “the ones who are successful using both will be the ones who come out of it successfully.” Mentorship and real-world exposure, she said, remain critical as finance careers adjust to new expectations.
