OpenAI annualised revenues $20B less than previously signalled
OpenAI gave the roughly $50 billion run rate for the end of September in an investor presentation. The higher number reported late last month counted partners' gross sales so it could be compared with Anthropic, which includes the full value of sales through cloud partners. OpenAI's is based on net revenue. The company also reported 77% total run rate growth during its third quarter, as well as 107% run rate growth for its enterprise business. Suppliers fell on Thursday. Nvidia shares fell 3%, Oracle shares fell nearly 6% and CoreWeave shares slipped nearly 8%, and AMD and Broadcom both slipped 4%. OpenAI closed a historic $122 billion funding round in March, and CFO Sarah Friar said last week that the company still has plenty of capital. For builders, the main point is that frontier lab run rates are not measured the same way. Any comparison between OpenAI and Anthropic, or between a startup and either one, needs to state whether the numbers are gross or net. Companies whose compute or channel revenue depends on OpenAI's spending should plan around the net figure.
