OpenAI revenue near $50B, $20B below earlier reports
OpenAI told investors its annualized revenue was approaching $50 billion at the end of September 2026, the Financial Times reported on October 8. That is about $20 billion below the figure of nearly $70 billion reported in late September. The gap hit AI stocks the same day and reopened a question for every company buying AI: how big is the market leader's business, really? Two numbers, two ways…
OpenAI's annualized revenue is nearing $50 billion, according to the Financial Times, which is about $20 billion less than earlier reports of nearly $70 billion. This discrepancy in numbers has caused a stir in the AI industry, particularly as companies that rely on OpenAI's services question the true scale of the market leader's business.
The difference in figures stems from varying accounting methods - one counts full sales, including those sold by cloud partners like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, while the other only counts OpenAI's direct sales. OpenAI's investor estimate puts the annualized revenue at around $50 billion, while OpenAI's own investors suggest it could be closer to $68 billion to $70 billion. OpenAI declined to comment on these conflicting reports.
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