OpenAI's Revenue Is Near $50 Billion, Not $70 Billion. Why the Math Changed
OpenAI has told investors its annualized revenue is approaching $50 billion, about $20 billion below the $70 billion figure reported in late September. TechCrunch on October 8, 2026 attributed the lower number to Financial Times reporting.
The $70 billion figure came from information previously shared with investors by OpenAI, according to the Financial Times. That figure was put together by OpenAI's own investors in an attempt to make a direct comparison with Anthropic's annualized revenue. Axios had previously reported that OpenAI's annualized revenue was approaching $70 billion, a report relayed by Reuters on September 29, 2026.
The gap comes down to definitions. Anthropic counts sales made through its cloud partners, while OpenAI does not. For people who follow cloud use and API resale, where customers buy model access through a cloud provider rather than directly, that is an important difference. It is like comparing shop receipts when one shop counts online orders and the other does not. Sales that pass through large cloud providers are not the same as revenue a company records itself.
September reports said OpenAI's annualized recurring revenue was up more than 70% since the start of the third quarter of 2026. Annualized recurring revenue means recent subscription and usage income extended to a full-year rate. Enterprise sales had increased more than twofold since July 2026, according to that same Reuters account. A separate Yahoo Finance summary of the Axios reporting on September 29 gave the same growth rate for annualized recurring revenue since the start of the quarter.
The lower number follows a series of higher reports. The Information reported that annualized revenue doubled to $3.4 billion since late 2023, with most revenue from subscriptions and API access. API access means paid use of OpenAI's models inside other software. It later reported OpenAI reached $12 billion in annualized revenue after roughly doubling revenue in the first seven months of the year, with ChatGPT passing 700 million weekly active users. By March 4, 2026, The Information reported OpenAI had topped $25 billion in annualized revenue, a 17% increase from $21.4 billion.
Other reports add detail to that climb. The Information reported OpenAI generated about $5.7 billion in revenue in the first quarter. It reported OpenAI was on track to top $13 billion in 2025 revenue, up from around $4 billion the prior year. Leaked 2025 financials showed it made about $13 billion but spent significantly more. Bloomberg reported on August 14, 2026 that OpenAI was on track to generate more than $40 billion in annualized revenue.
Anthropic's numbers moved on a similar path. The Information reported in May that Anthropic's annualized revenue recently neared $45 billion. Bloomberg reported on August 18, 2026 that Anthropic's annualized revenue topped $65 billion.
Valuation and fundraising have grown at a different pace than recorded revenue. OpenAI raised $122 billion in a March funding round. It completed an employee share sale at a $500 billion valuation, as reported by Bloomberg on October 2, 2025. On October 8, 2026, Bloomberg reported OpenAI was in talks to raise $30 billion at a $1.4 trillion valuation, with Tiger Global poised for a $5 billion paper profit on its OpenAI investment. Reuters on September 29, 2026 also reported, citing Bloomberg News, that OpenAI was targeting $30 billion in funding at a $1.4 trillion valuation. OpenAI said it would purchase $250 billion worth of cloud services. Its IPO, previously rumored for 2026, has been pushed off until early 2027.
The broader context here is accounting, not only growth. Annualized revenue is a snapshot calculation. It takes a recent month or quarter and extends it across a year. It responds to timing, to short bursts in use, and to what is included. Sales through cloud partners can raise the headline total if one company includes them and the other does not.
In my view, longtime watchers will find this familiar. New computing platforms often go through a stretch when private valuations, promised spending on infrastructure, and reported revenue are measured in different ways. I saw my children move from PCs to phones to cloud services without ever thinking about run rates or partner sales. Business buyers are now doing much the same at larger scale, paying for seats, chat use, and API capacity. The financial terms take time to catch up and describe that use in the same way. The long arc still points to wider adoption. What this correction changes is not the direction of use. It is how exact the comparison is.
