OpenAI told investors its annualized revenue reached about $50 billion at the end of September, roughly $20 billion below the $70 billion figure that circulated last month, the Financial Times reported.
The earlier $70 billion estimate came from investors' own attempt to compare OpenAI's growth with Anthropic's, after OpenAI told them revenue had grown more than 70% during the period, according to Investing.com, which cited the Financial Times. Anthropic counts revenue from sales through cloud partners such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, while OpenAI does not, the outlets reported, so applying Anthropic's math to OpenAI's growth rate produced an inflated figure.
The Nasdaq Composite fell more than 1% after the report, with technology stocks under particular pressure, Investing.com reported. OpenAI had told investors annualized revenue reached $40 billion in August, according to the outlet, putting the September figure on a steady growth path even though it falls short of the earlier estimate.
OpenAI raised $122 billion in March and is reportedly targeting an initial public offering in early 2027, TechCrunch reported. A revenue figure that investors inflated through their own math, now corrected down by $20 billion, is the kind of detail that shapes how much capital keeps flowing into the AI buildout founders depend on.