KEY POINTS
- OpenAI’s annualised revenue was approaching $50 billion at the end of September, the Financial Times reported.
- The figure was about $20 billion below earlier estimates of nearly $70 billion.
- Differences in how OpenAI and rival Anthropic count sales through cloud partners reportedly explain the gap.
MAIN STORY
OpenAI’s annualised revenue was approaching $50 billion at the end of September, about $20 billion below figures reported earlier, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing financial documents shared with investors.
Earlier media reports had put the artificial intelligence company’s annualised revenue at nearly $70 billion. The Financial Times attributed the discrepancy to differences in how OpenAI and rival Anthropic calculate revenue from sales through cloud service providers.
Anthropic includes revenue from sales through cloud partners such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud in its calculations, while OpenAI handles those sales differently, according to the report.
The difference has complicated efforts by investors to compare the two companies’ growth using the same measure. Annualised revenue estimates project a company’s recent sales pace over a full year, rather than showing how much it has actually earned during 12 months.
OpenAI announced in March that it had raised $122 billion in committed capital at a post money valuation of $852 billion, according to the company’s funding announcement.
THE ISSUES
The revenue discrepancy shows why investors need to understand how fast growing technology companies calculate their sales before comparing their performance. A difference in accounting methods can produce significantly different estimates, even when the figures are intended to measure a similar business trend.
Revenue also does not show how much a company earns after paying its operating and development costs. The figures cited in the reports therefore do not, on their own, establish OpenAI’s profitability.
WHAT’S NEXT
The reported difference leaves investors with the task of distinguishing between estimates based on different calculation methods. The available reporting does not establish OpenAI’s final annual revenue for 2026.
BOTTOM LINE
OpenAI’s annualised revenue was reportedly approaching $50 billion at the end of September, below earlier estimates of nearly $70 billion. Differences in how sales through cloud partners are counted may explain the gap, according to the Financial Times.
Source: Financial Times and OpenAI.
