OpenAI’s Revenue Falls $20 Billion Short of Expectations, Sending A.I. Stocks Lower
Set Trending Topics as a preferred source on Google.
The $70 billion was only an extrapolation: OpenAI told investors that its annualized revenue was just under $50 billion (about €44.5 billion) at the end of September, according to the Financial Times. Shortly before, media reports had put the figure at almost $70 billion. The news sent A.I. stocks lower on Thursday.
Gross Versus Net
The FT attributes the $20 billion gap to different accounting methods. Anthropic counts sales made through cloud partners such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud in full as its own revenue. OpenAI, by contrast, books only the share it actually keeps. To make the two companies comparable, investors scaled up OpenAI’s numbers: At first, about $40 billion for August was circulating, and after OpenAI reported growth of more than 70 percent, that became $70 billion.
Under its own accounting method, OpenAI, at $50 billion, would trail Anthropic, which reported an annualized revenue of $65 billion (about €58 billion) back in July, though using the more generous gross method. Annualized revenue projects the current sales pace over a full year, so the money has not actually been booked yet. For all of 2025, OpenAI generated about $13 billion in revenue, according to audited figures.
The Nasdaq Slides
The market did not take the news well. Within half an hour on Thursday afternoon, the Nasdaq 100 lost more than 300 points, and the Nasdaq Composite was down about 1.4 percent at one point. Companies whose business is closely tied to OpenAI, including Nvidia, Oracle and CoreWeave, came under particular pressure, according to CNBC. Sentiment was already tense: The yield on 30-year Treasuries is at its highest level in more than two decades, and oil is above $100 a barrel.
On Friday, OpenAI tried to push back. According to Bloomberg, the company expects to reach or exceed $70 billion in annualized revenue by the end of 2026, driven mainly by its enterprise business. Nasdaq 100 futures rose slightly in response.
Pressure Ahead of the I.P.O.
The debate comes at a bad time for OpenAI. The company is reportedly in talks to raise new capital at a valuation of $1.4 trillion and is not expected to go public before early 2027. Anthropic could list earlier, and Wall Street is already waiting for it. At the same time, OpenAI is catching up with business customers: According to data from the OpenRouter platform, the company has almost closed the gap with Anthropic through aggressive pricing. Before going public, however, both companies will above all need to show one thing: comparable and sustainable revenue.
