OpenAI's Annualized Revenue Reported Near $50B, Below Market Expectations, Hits AI Stocks
The Financial Times reported on Oct 8 that OpenAI's latest investor documents showed annualized revenue of nearly $50 billion as of the end of September, significantly below the $70 billion figure widely cited by the market. CNBC later confirmed the data with relevant parties.
The news dampened investor confidence in sustained AI demand, triggering a broad selloff in US tech stocks. The Nasdaq fell 1.4%, Nvidia dropped about 3%, Oracle lost more than 5.5%, while AMD, Broadcom, Intel and Super Micro fell between 4% and 6%. Data center and optical interconnect stocks also slumped: Nebius and CoreWeave each fell over 7%, Applied Optoelectronics plunged 13%, and Coherent dropped 7%.
Reports said the large gap in revenue figures stems from different calculation methods used by OpenAI and rival Anthropic. Anthropic includes revenue generated through cloud partners such as AWS and Google Cloud, while OpenAI counts only revenue generated directly by itself, excluding partner channel sales. The previously circulated $70 billion figure came from investors attempting to adjust OpenAI's data for cross-comparison. OpenAI's latest investor briefing clarified the numbers, leading the market to realize the earlier figure was misleading.
OpenAI's latest documents also showed annualized revenue of about $30 billion at the end of July, with overall operating revenue up 77% year over year in the third quarter of 2026 and enterprise business up 107%. The company is in talks with investors for a new funding round that could value it at around $1.4 trillion. The revision comes at a critical time for OpenAI's valuation-building efforts, and the scrutiny of both OpenAI and Anthropic's revenue figures has heightened concerns about the commercialization of the large-model sector.
