OpenAI has told investors its annualized revenue is approaching $50B, roughly $20B below the figure that has been circulating in recent weeks.
The Financial Times reported the revision. The higher number, near $70B, was never a company projection, according to the report; it came from investors trying to build a like-for-like comparison with Anthropic’s run rate. The two labs count revenue differently, with Anthropic including sales made through cloud partners and OpenAI leaving them out.
The gap matters because OpenAI is under pressure to justify the scale of the buildout being financed on its behalf. The company raised $122B in a single March round. Leaked figures from earlier this year showed it booked about $13B in 2025 while spending considerably more.
An IPO once rumored for this year has slipped to early 2027. Whatever the accounting, the correction narrows the distance between the two leading labs and raises the question of how much of the current spending wave rests on run-rate numbers that move when the definition changes.
