OpenAI annualised revenues $20bn lower than previously signalled

OpenAI’s annualised revenue is approximately $20bn less than the company recently signalled to investors, according to financial documents shared with backers. The company had told investors its revenues were approaching $50bn on an annualised basis as of the end of September, a figure far short of the $70bn reported by media outlets late last month based on earlier investor information.

Revenue Discrepancy and Calculation Methods

The discrepancy arose from attempts by OpenAI’s investors to compare its performance directly with rival Anthropic. The two companies calculate annualised revenue differently:

• Anthropic includes revenue from sales via cloud partners such as Amazon’s AWS and Google Cloud.
• OpenAI does not include these partner sales in its primary metric.

Investors’ efforts to “gross up” OpenAI’s figures led to reports of around $40bn in July. OpenAI later stated its annualised revenues had jumped more than 70% since July, leading investors to calculate the $70bn figure for September. However, the new investor presentation reveals close to $30bn in annualised revenues for July.

Market Impact and Future Outlook

This gap is likely to dampen optimism about AI demand growth, a metric that underpins vast infrastructure spending and public equity market growth. Following earlier reports, US tech stocks fell sharply, with the Nasdaq 100 down 1.7%, Nvidia down 2.9%, Oracle down nearly 6%, and Micron down 4%.

Despite the lower-than-expected figures, the $50bn annualised revenue reported for September still indicates rapid expansion since the summer. OpenAI is currently in talks for a new private funding round that could value the company at about $1.4tn. As a private company, OpenAI is not required to regularly disclose its financials publicly and declined to comment.