OpenAI Projects $50 Billion in Annual Revenue as Investor Estimates Drop
A $20 billion gap between investor estimates and OpenAI's internal forecast reflects differing accounting methods for cloud revenue compared to rival Anthropic.
OpenAI has informed investors that it expects to generate $50 billion in revenue for the year, according to a report from Mashable Tech citing the Financial Times.
The $50 billion figure sits $20 billion below projections circulated just last month, which anticipated $70 billion in annual revenue. According to reporting from the Financial Times, that higher $70 billion estimate did not originate from OpenAI itself; rather, it was compiled by investors comparing OpenAI to Anthropic. Anthropic includes revenue from cloud providers in its revenue projections, whereas OpenAI excludes cloud provider revenue from its calculations.
The revised outlook comes amid massive capital deployment across the artificial intelligence sector, where firms have spent trillions on data centers and compute infrastructure. Tech stocks declined following reports of the adjusted revenue expectation, amid broader market scrutiny regarding when large AI developers will achieve profitability.
OpenAI raised $122 billion in March at an $852 billion valuation and has recently pursued an additional $30 billion in funding at a valuation near $1.4 trillion. However, Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman announced last month that OpenAI will not pursue an initial public offering in 2026, citing AI safety concerns.
Competitor Anthropic still plans to go public this year, though its prospectus shows significant losses, including a $42 billion loss in 2025.
Sources
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The Company Wire
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