Analysis
OpenAI told investors its annualized revenue is approaching $50 billion, according to the Financial Times, as reported by TechCrunch.
That figure is about $20 billion below the nearly-$70 billion number that Axios and other outlets reported in late September, based on information OpenAI itself had shared with investors weeks earlier.
How two very different numbers came from the same company
The FT reports that the higher figure reflected an attempt by OpenAI's own investors to produce a direct comparison with Anthropic's annualized revenue, rather than a clean apples-to-apples measure of OpenAI's business.
The two companies calculate the metric differently: Anthropic counts sales made through its cloud partners (AWS, Google Cloud) in its run-rate, while OpenAI's new $50 billion figure reportedly does not. Anthropic itself reported a $65 billion annualized run-rate in July.
TechCrunch reached out to OpenAI for comment on the discrepancy; the company had not responded as of publication.
Background: a company whose numbers keep moving
OpenAI's financial disclosures have been a moving target all year. Leaked 2025 financials showed roughly $13 billion in full-year revenue against far higher spending.
The company closed a $122 billion funding round in March 2026, pricing that round against growth trajectories that this week's downward revision now calls into question. An IPO that was previously rumored for sometime in 2026 has, per the FT's reporting cited by TechCrunch, slipped to early 2027.
Competitive context
The comparison OpenAI's investors were reportedly trying to win is specifically against Anthropic, which has pushed its own IPO plans toward an October 2026 Nasdaq listing and has been explicit that its cloud-partner revenue counts toward its run-rate. If OpenAI's $50 billion figure excludes a comparable revenue stream, the two companies' headline numbers are not actually measuring the same thing -- a distinction that matters enormously to public-market investors who will be asked to value both IPOs within months of each other.
The counterweight
An annualized run-rate -- taking one month or one quarter of revenue and multiplying it out -- is not the same as audited full-year revenue; however, OpenAI has not published GAAP financials for 2026 either way. Both figures describe a projection, not a closed book.
A company whose own investor materials moved by a third in a matter of weeks is one where any single number should be read as a snapshot rather than ground truth, and the discrepancy itself -- not just the direction of it -- is the real story for anyone underwriting OpenAI's eventual IPO prospectus.
What to watch
Whether OpenAI publishes a consistent, audited revenue methodology before any IPO roadshow, and whether the slip to early 2027 gives Anthropic a chance to list first and set the market's benchmark for how an AI lab's revenue should actually be measured.