It seems you’re assuming that the only way to “recover” costs is directly from paying customers. In reality, however, costs can be “recovered” indirectly from investors as well. Microsoft’s soaring stock price in the past year has more than recovered the company’s investment in OpenAI.
On a broad scale, select investors represent a much larger base of customers. OpenAI’s costs are recovered from investment in Microsoft, which in turn is ultimately paid for by ordinary customers through a complex chain of business relations. This process of delegation happens as often in business as it does in politics.