OpenAI is bringing in about $20 billion less in annualised revenue than investors had been led to believe, the Financial Times reported Thursday, raising questions about the solidity of the AI business.
Investors track annualised revenue at OpenAI and Anthropic as the clearest signal of demand for artificial intelligence, and the figures help justify enormous spending on data centres as well as the AI-fueled stock market rally. That method was intended to make it easier for investors to measure the company against chief rival Anthropic. OpenAI did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Citing documents shared with OpenAI’s financial backers, the FT said the company put its annualised revenue at close to $50 billion as of the end of September. In an apparent pushback, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC that the earlier number, which the network reported as $68 billion, counted gross revenue from OpenAI’s partnerships with companies like chipmaker Nvidia. The report weighed on AI-linked stocks, with Nvidia down 2.9 percent, SpaceX down four percent and Oracle losing nearly six percent. The report lands as OpenAI negotiates a fresh private fundraising that could value it at roughly $1.4 trillion, according to the FT.
