OpenAI's revenue is not quite what the world thought it was. The Financial Times reported on Thursday that OpenAI recently told investors its annualized revenue was nearing $50 billion at the end of September — roughly $20 billion less than the $70 billion figure reported by the FT and other outlets late last month, based on information provided to investors.
The gap rattled markets immediately. The Nasdaq Composite sank 1.25%, its worst day since mid-August, and the S&P 500 fell 0.5%, with declines accelerating after the report was published midday.
The selling spread across semiconductor chipmakers, cloud providers, and other companies tied to the AI buildout: Nvidia fell 2.9%, Intel 5.3%, and Oracle 5.5%. Broadcom dropped 4.3%, AMD 3.9%, Micron 4.8%, and SanDisk 4.9%. The tech-sector ETF XLK slid 1.8%, its largest one-day decline since September 14.
A $20 billion accounting question
Part of the gap comes down to how the numbers were calculated. A source familiar with the documents told CNN the $70 billion figure did not come from OpenAI, and likely reflected an effort to compare OpenAI's numbers with rival Anthropic's — which include gross revenue from cloud providers. OpenAI's figure is based on net revenue.
CNBC, cited by CoinDesk, reported that the earlier $70 billion figure included revenue-sharing deals with cloud partners such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, while the $50 billion number excludes those sales. OpenAI declined to comment on the report.
The AI demand question
The discrepancy lands at a moment when investors are already questioning whether demand for AI will be strong enough for companies like OpenAI and Anthropic to turn a profit — and to justify the industry's enormous spending on the AI buildout.
"There are going to be tremors throughout all of the related sub-industries," Ross Mayfield, an investment strategist at Baird, told CNN. The stakes are high: in recent weeks, the stock market has been buoyed by gains in tech and AI stocks while other sectors struggled under the pressure of rising bond yields. If wrinkles appear in the AI growth story, they could send ripples through the entire supply chain for the buildout.
The story also arrives as OpenAI — apparently putting off an IPO for now — is reportedly in talks with investors about a new funding round at a roughly $1.4 trillion valuation, according to CoinDesk. On Thursday, chip and AI infrastructure names including Nebius, Bloom Energy, and Astera Labs were among the hardest hit, per Investor's Business Daily.
By Hamza Faisal
