OpenAI told investors its annualized revenue was close to $50 billion at the end of September, about $20 billion less than investors had been led to believe, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing financial documents shared with the company’s backers. The FT said the gap was likely to damp optimism about the growth of AI demand. Media reports late last month had put the figure at $70 billion, based on information given to investors, according to an AFP account of the FT report carried by RTÉ.
The difference comes down partly to what gets counted. CNBC confirmed the roughly $50 billion figure, and a person familiar with the matter told the network that the $68 billion number widely reported last month included gross revenue from OpenAI’s partners, a method meant to make the company easier to compare with Anthropic. The same person said OpenAI’s investor presentation touted 77% total run-rate growth in the third quarter and 107% for its enterprise business.
OpenAI expects to reach or exceed $70 billion in annualized revenue by the end of the year, driven largely by its enterprise business, Bloomberg reported late Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. OpenAI declined to comment to Bloomberg. Annualized revenue projects a full year of sales from a shorter period, typically a single month, which is why the metric is sometimes criticized as imprecise. Investors still treat it as the clearest read on AI demand at OpenAI and Anthropic.
AI stocks fell on Thursday. Nvidia shares dropped 3%, Oracle fell nearly 6% and CoreWeave slipped nearly 8%, CNBC reported, while Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom each lost 4% and Intel fell 5%. The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.4%, according to Bloomberg.
The report lands as OpenAI negotiates a private round that could value it at roughly $1.4 trillion, according to the FT. Bloomberg reported the company is in talks to raise $30 billion or more at that valuation before the new money. In September OpenAI was weighing a pre-IPO round above $1.2 trillion and held early talks on a raise of around $30 billion. OpenAI confidentially filed for an IPO in June and had been expected to list this fall, but it has pushed the listing back to at least next year, Bloomberg reported. Anthropic, which told investors its run rate hit $65 billion at the end of July, is expected to go public as soon as November.
Sources
- Financial Times (George Hammond, Stephen Morris): OpenAI annualised revenues $20bn less than previously signalled (October 8, 2026; paywalled, opening only read)
- RTÉ: OpenAI revenue gap report rattles AI stocks (October 9, 2026)
- CNBC: Nvidia, Oracle, CoreWeave and other AI stocks sink on OpenAI revenue report (October 8, 2026)
- Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance (Rebecca Torrence, Shirin Ghaffary): OpenAI Expects $70 Billion in Annualized Revenue by End of 2026 (October 8, 2026)