OpenAI's annualised revenue is about $20 billion lower than the figure that circulated last month, according to a Financial Times report published on 8 October. The company has recently told investors its revenue was approaching $50 billion on an annualised basis at the end of September, against the roughly $70 billion that the FT, Reuters and other outlets reported in late September.
The gap changes the AI revenue race. At $50 billion, OpenAI would sit below Anthropic's reported $65 billion annualised run rate; the earlier $70 billion figure would have put it ahead. Reuters said it could not independently verify the FT report, and OpenAI did not immediately respond to its request for comment.
How a $70 billion figure took hold
The FT traced the higher number to investors rather than to OpenAI. Reuters, summarising the FT report, said the discrepancy came from investors' attempts to compare OpenAI's annualised revenue directly with Anthropic's.
According to Yahoo Finance's summary of the FT report, investors first tried to work out whether OpenAI's sales had reached $40 billion in August. They then combined that estimate with the 70% revenue growth OpenAI had told them about, which landed them near $70 billion. Outlets including Reuters carried that figure in late September.
Why OpenAI's and Anthropic's numbers don't line up
The two companies do not count annualised revenue the same way. Per the FT, as relayed by Reuters, Anthropic includes revenue from sales made through cloud partners such as AWS and Google Cloud, while OpenAI does not.
Semafor reported in April, citing people familiar with the matter, that when a customer buys $1 of tokens through a cloud partner, OpenAI books its 20-cent cut while Anthropic books the whole dollar. One person familiar with the numbers put the gap at up to $8 billion in annualised revenue at the time. Because the partner percentages vary, Semafor noted normalising the two sets of figures is difficult.
The metric itself is also blunt. Reuters noted that annualised run rate often just multiplies one month's revenue by 12, and can mislead, even though fast-growing startups lean on it heavily.
Why it matters now
Both companies are heading towards public markets, where revenue claims face regulatory scrutiny. Reuters noted that listings could give Wall Street a clearer view of their finances, including whether their rapid growth is sustainable. Yahoo Finance reports that OpenAI's IPO is widely expected in early 2027, while Anthropic is rumoured to list before Thanksgiving, with its public S-1 prospectus expected any day.
TechCrunch framed the revenue question as part of a wider pressure on OpenAI to justify the scale of money behind it. The company raised $122 billion in a single round in March, and its leaked 2025 financials showed about $13 billion in revenue against much larger spending. Its IPO, once rumoured for this year, has been pushed back to early 2027.
What to watch
Even at $50 billion, OpenAI's latest figure is more than double the level its CFO, Sarah Friar, cited in January, when she said annualised revenue had passed $20 billion in 2025, up from $6 billion in 2024. The gap also shows how much these figures depend on who is counting, and how.
Three things will show how it settles:
OpenAI's response. OpenAI did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment, and Reuters could not verify the FT's account.
Anthropic's S-1. A public prospectus would show how it books revenue sold through AWS and Google Cloud.
A like-for-like basis. Whether analysts and the press start comparing the two companies on the same gross or net footing.
Sources
Figures come from press reports of the FT's account and have not been independently verified.
Reuters: OpenAI's annualized revenue $20 billion less than previously signaled, FT reports (8 October 2026)
Yahoo Finance: OpenAI's annualized revenue $20 billion lower than prior investor estimates (8 October 2026)
TechCrunch: OpenAI's revenue is reportedly $20 billion less than previously projected (8 October 2026)
Semafor: Anthropic is gaining on OpenAI's revenue, but hasn't yet eclipsed it (10 April 2026)
Reuters: OpenAI CFO says annualized revenue crosses $20 billion in 2025 (19 January 2026)
Financial Times original report (paywalled; summarised here via Reuters and TechCrunch)
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