OpenAI’s September annualized revenue nears $50b: source

OpenAI's annualized revenue for September is near $50 billion, according to a report. This figure is lower than previously reported, with some investors having been led to believe it was $70 billion. The discrepancy arises from how OpenAI and rival Anthropic calculate revenue, with OpenAI excluding sales through partners such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, while Anthropic includes these sales and related fees.

The lower revenue figure has raised questions about the solidity of the AI business and has weighed on AI-linked stocks. Investors track annualized revenue at OpenAI and Anthropic as a signal of demand for artificial intelligence, which helps justify spending on data centers and drives the AI-fuelled stock market rally.

A person familiar with the matter told CNBC that the earlier number, which was reported as $68 billion, counted gross revenue from OpenAI's partnerships with companies like chipmaker Nvidia, in an attempt to make it easier for investors to measure the company against Anthropic. The Financial Times reported that OpenAI's annualized revenue was about $20 billion below levels the company had previously indicated.

Brief written by urgent.news from Tech in Asia, Investing.com, Economic Times Tech, Malay Mail — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.