OpenAI's Revenue Reported at $50 Billion: Why It Differs From the Earlier $70 Billion
The figure presented to investors is about $20 billion lower than a previously reported number, according to the Financial Times. How revenue was tallied for comparison with a rival is cited as the reason for the gap.
OpenAI told investors its annualized revenue stood at roughly $50 billion as of the end of September, the Financial Times reported on October 8 local time. The FT cited financial documents prepared for investors. That figure is about $20 billion lower than the roughly $70 billion reported in September.
Why the $20 billion gap?
The FT pointed to differences in how revenue is counted as the source of the gap between the two numbers. The earlier $70 billion figure, according to the report, emerged as investors tried to compare OpenAI and Anthropic on the same basis. In other words, which sales get booked as revenue changes the number used to describe the size of the business.
A person cited in the report said the two companies treat sales made through cloud partners differently. Anthropic counts sales routed through partners such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud as revenue, while OpenAI does not include them the same way.
Is $50 billion a full year of revenue?
Annualized revenue is calculated by assuming that the revenue pace of a given period continues for a full year. It is not the same as what a company actually earns over twelve months. The $50 billion figure likewise represents the revenue pace at the end of September annualized.
OpenAI previously disclosed annualized revenue of more than $20 billion for 2025 in official materials. The company’s chief financial officer has also cited figures of $6 billion for 2024 and $2 billion for 2023. This time, the scale of the company’s revenue was reported on the basis of investor documents rather than announced officially.
What to look at when comparing AI companies’ revenue
It is worth checking whether sales made through partners are included in the revenue figure. Even for the same company, shifting the scope of what counts can swing the number by tens of billions of dollars. That is why the basis of comparison should be established first when lining up revenue figures for familiar AI companies.
The FT said OpenAI declined to comment on the report. What remains to be confirmed is the detailed breakdown behind the $50 billion figure, and what adjustments were baked into the earlier $70 billion number.