OpenAI Told Investors Its September Revenue Run Rate Was Near $50 Billion, Not $70 Billion

SAN FRANCISCO - OpenAI has told investors that its annualised revenue was approaching $50 billion at the end of September, about $20 billion below the roughly $70 billion figure that circulated in late September, according to financial documents reviewed by the Financial Times and confirmed in follow-up reporting by Reuters and The Irish Times.

The company did not respond to requests for comment. The lower number is not a sudden collapse in ChatGPT sales. People familiar with the matter told the FT and Reuters that the discrepancy mainly arose when OpenAI’s own investors tried to produce a direct comparison with Anthropic, which counts revenue differently.

Anthropic includes sales made through cloud partners such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud in its annualised revenue. OpenAI does not. A Reuters analysis previously found that Anthropic pays those partners about 16 percent of every dollar earned through them, and that those channels accounted for half of Anthropic’s revenue last year. When investors “grossed up” OpenAI’s figure to match Anthropic’s method, they produced the higher estimates that later appeared in media reports.

OpenAI told investors its revenues had grown more than 70 percent over the period covered by the new documents, the FT reported. The company started 2026 with about $20 billion in annualised revenue, up from $6 billion in 2024, Reuters said. In the second quarter, Anthropic reported $11.5 billion in quarterly revenue against OpenAI’s $6.7 billion, the first time Anthropic had eclipsed OpenAI on that measure. Sources have previously told Reuters that Anthropic’s annualised revenue crossed $65 billion in July and was on track for $100 billion by year-end.

Annualised revenue, sometimes called a run rate, usually multiplies one month’s sales by 12. Analysts often call it a rough signal rather than a precise earnings figure, but investors still treat OpenAI and Anthropic run rates as a proxy for AI demand and for how much data-centre spending the boom can support. The FT report weighed on AI-linked stocks on Thursday and Friday, with Nvidia, Oracle and others sliding as the Nasdaq fell, according to RTE and market reports.

Both companies are preparing to go public. OpenAI confidentially filed IPO paperwork in June and has since pushed back a listing that many expected this autumn, while Anthropic is widely expected to list next month, RTE reported. The FT also said OpenAI is negotiating a fresh private fundraising that could value it at roughly $1.4 trillion.

Separately on Friday, the FT reported that SoftBank Group chief executive Masayoshi Son is seeking up to $100 billion from Gulf investors, including talks with senior figures in the United Arab Emirates, for a new fund that would buy companies and use AI to improve their operations. SoftBank completed a $30 billion OpenAI investment last week and raised $11.1 billion last month in a high-yield bond sale tied to its AI bets, Reuters said. SoftBank did not respond to a request for comment.