OpenAI's Revenue Is $20 Billion Below Earlier Projections

By Grace Kim

OpenAI has told investors its annualized revenue is approaching $50 billion — roughly $20 billion below the near-$70 billion figure reported just over a week ago, according to The Financial Times.

The gap matters. The $70 billion number, first reported by news outlets, came from information OpenAI had shared with its investors. Per the FT, that figure was devised via "attempts by OpenAI's own investors to produce a direct comparison with Anthropic's annualised revenues."

The comparison itself was flawed from the start.

Why the two numbers don't line up

OpenAI and Anthropic calculate annualized revenue differently. Anthropic counts sales made by its cloud partners. OpenAI doesn't.

That means any side-by-side run-rate comparison — the kind OpenAI's investors reportedly built — rests on two different definitions of "revenue." A $70 billion OpenAI figure was framed as competitive with Anthropic's reported run rate. The apples-to-apples math apparently never existed.

TechCrunch reached out to OpenAI for comment.

What's at stake for OpenAI's investors?

The revenue question goes beyond optics. OpenAI is under pressure to justify the enormous capital flowing into the company, and the numbers are large by any measure:

• OpenAI raised $122 billion in a March funding round alone.
• Leaked 2025 financials showed roughly $13 billion in revenue against significantly higher spending.
• Its IPO, previously rumored for this year, has slipped to early 2027.

A $20 billion haircut in the headline run rate lands while the company is still spending well beyond what it earns. That's the core tension investors have to underwrite.

What happens next?

With the IPO now pegged for early 2027 and spending still outpacing revenue, OpenAI's ability to close the gap — or at least reframe the comparison on its own accounting terms — will shape the next funding conversation.