I'm not saying that the SEC is stupid. They have a consistent way that they expect a corporation to do their books.
But for all practical intents and purposes, you can't just fire all your sales people and shut off your marketing firehose, and stop giving discounts, and expect revenue to remain steady in either the short, or the long-term.
You can shut down your R&D, and it will remain steady, at least in the short term.
I am clearly mincing terms that mean specific things, and I'm very sorry to do so. I am simply trying to communicate that generally speaking, OpenAI is currently spending ~$1.05 to make a dollar, and is also on top of that, spending ~$3.00 in R&D.
Now, I do think that it's likely that they can increase their prices to close that 5-cent gap.
If you drill a dry well, under successful efforts accounting, you expense it. You also make zero dollars.
On top of that, oil wells decline, slowly but surely, just like... customers churn.
If you spend $100 mill on sales and marketing and get zero customers, I'd agree it should expensed. If you get a bunch of customers, it's hard to argue against the capex treatment idea.
Brand equity lasts long after advertising has ceased. Coca-Cola could stop advertising for a year tomorrow and people would still be aware of it and buy it.
Cost of revenues Research and development Sales and marketing General and administrative
Take it up with the SEC I guess?
[1] https://s206.q4cdn.com/479360582/files/doc_financials/2026/q...