OpenAI told investors that it reached roughly $50 billion in annualized revenue at the end of September, according to CNBC, which confirmed the figure after the Financial Times first reported it. The number is about $20 billion lower than the $68 billion figure that was widely reported in late September, and the gap was enough to send AI-linked stocks lower across the board on Thursday.

Why the Two Revenue Figures Differ For more context on this story, see our ongoing artificial intelligence updates.

The discrepancy does not appear to reflect a sudden collapse in demand. According to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to CNBC, the earlier $68 billion figure included gross revenue from OpenAI's partners, a presentation choice that was intended to give investors a more direct comparison with its chief rival, Anthropic.

The revised $50 billion figure was shared in an investor presentation, the person said. Alongside the headline number, OpenAI touted 77 percent total run-rate growth during its third quarter, as well as 107 percent run-rate growth for its enterprise business over the same period.

Even so, the correction landed badly with a market that has been pricing AI infrastructure winners on the assumption that OpenAI's spending commitments will keep growing. Shares of Oracle fell 6 percent and CoreWeave slipped 8 percent in intraday trading on Thursday, while Nvidia dropped 3 percent. Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom, Intel and Super Micro Computer each fell between 5 and 6 percent.

The Multiplier Effect on AI Infrastructure Stocks

The selloff underlines how tightly public-market valuations have become coupled to OpenAI's private financials. Oracle, CoreWeave and other compute providers have signed multibillion-dollar capacity deals with frontier labs, and their revenue projections assume those contracts convert into sustained, growing payments. A lower-than-signaled revenue figure at the anchor customer raises uncomfortable questions about how that demand curve will actually be funded.

IPO Stakes Are Rising for OpenAI and Anthropic

The revenue clarification comes at a sensitive moment. OpenAI is under pressure to justify its $852 billion valuation as it prepares for what is widely expected to be a blockbuster IPO. The company confidentially filed its prospectus with regulators in June, and executives have signaled that it is eyeing a 2027 debut.

Sam Altman has publicly urged patience. In September, the OpenAI chief executive said that "right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public," citing in part ongoing concerns around AI safety. The company recently pulled its plans to launch GPT-6.1 Astra, saying the model did not meet its safety standards.

Meanwhile, OpenAI continues early-stage discussions with investors about a new funding round that could raise around $30 billion, CNBC has previously reported, though no term sheet has been finalized. The company closed a historic $122 billion funding round in March, and CFO Sarah Friar told CNBC last week that OpenAI remains "very well capitalized."

Anthropic, which has been readying its own IPO, told investors in August that its annualized revenue run rate hit $65 billion at the end of July. The company is reportedly seeking a $2 trillion valuation, a figure that drew a sharp rebuttal from independent research firm New Constructs, which this week called Anthropic's upcoming offering the "most ridiculous IPO of 2026" and valued the company at just $150 billion. According to Reuters, which cited a leaked copy of Anthropic's prospectus, the company generated $4.6 billion in revenue in 2025 while recording a net loss of $42 billion.

What the Revenue Gap Means for the AI Economy

The immediate read from analysts is that OpenAI's underlying growth remains strong, but the presentation of its financials is under new scrutiny. A 26 percent gap between two consecutive headline figures, even one explained by accounting methodology, invites skepticism about how much of the AI buildout's demand signal is real end-user spending versus partner circularity.

For now, the company's fundamentals are still expanding quickly by any historical standard. Run-rate growth of 77 percent in a single quarter, with enterprise revenue growing even faster, would be exceptional for almost any software company. The question investors are increasingly asking is not whether frontier AI revenue is growing, but whether it is growing fast enough to service the enormous infrastructure commitments being made against it.

The next test will come as OpenAI's IPO marketing window approaches. If the company goes public in 2027 as executives have signaled, the disclosures in its prospectus will need to reconcile these competing narratives in a way that quarterly investor updates never had to. Until then, expect every incremental data point about OpenAI's finances to keep moving the entire AI trade.

Key Numbers at a Glance

  • $50 billion: OpenAI's annualized revenue at the end of September, per the Financial Times and CNBC
  • $68 billion: the higher figure widely reported in late September, which included partner gross revenue
  • 77 percent: OpenAI's total run-rate growth in Q3, per a person familiar with the investor presentation
  • 107 percent: OpenAI's enterprise run-rate growth in the same period
  • $852 billion: OpenAI's current valuation ahead of an expected 2027 IPO
  • $65 billion: Anthropic's annualized run rate at the end of July, per its August investor update

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