OpenAI's quarterly revenue reportedly tops $10B for the first time

OpenAI’s quarterly revenue reportedly crossed $10 billion for the first time, driven by strong demand for its newest AI models, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources. If accurate, that figure would mark an almost 50% increase over the $6.7 billion OpenAI reportedly generated in revenue during the second quarter — a sharp acceleration from the roughly 18% quarter-over-quarter growth rate previously cited. The same report said OpenAI’s adjusted operating margin narrowed from -150% in the second quarter to -109% in the third, pointing to an improving, if still deeply negative, profitability picture.

OpenAI remains the pioneer in commercializing AI models, and 18% sequential growth on a $5.7 billion quarterly base would already be enormous for almost any software company. But its archrival Anthropic has outpaced it in revenue growth, particularly in capturing enterprise customers, and recently reported third-quarter revenue of $17 billion. OpenAI’s wider consumer reach has given it more than a billion users by its own account, though most are likely on free or low-cost tiers rather than paying full enterprise prices. Both companies also face price pressure from Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Google, plus a growing set of cheaper open-source models — many of them out of China — that match much of what the frontier labs offer.

Bloomberg put OpenAI’s current annualized revenue run rate at $50 billion. Anthropic, which is seeking a $1.4 trillion valuation in a stock offering likely to happen soon, said a day earlier that its own run rate had jumped by $10 billion in a single month, reaching $81 billion by the end of October — though the two companies calculate the metric differently: Anthropic counts sales made through its cloud partners, while OpenAI reports only its own share of similar partner sales.

Why it matters

If the figures hold up, OpenAI’s jump shows it narrowing — without closing — the revenue-growth gap that let Anthropic pull ahead in enterprise AI this year, even as both companies’ margins stay deeply negative and face intensifying price pressure from larger rivals and cheaper open-source alternatives.