OpenAI's quarterly revenue reportedly tops $10 billion for the first time

OpenAI reportedly crosses $10 billion in quarterly revenue

OpenAI's quarterly revenue has passed $10 billion for the first time, according to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the figures. As TechCrunch reports, the milestone amounts to a jump of close to 50% from the roughly $6.7 billion in sales OpenAI is said to have recorded in the second quarter, and marks a recovery for a company that had appeared to lose momentum earlier in the year.

Growth is accelerating again

Before this quarter, OpenAI's sequential growth was reported at around 18%, with revenue rising from about $5.7 billion in the first quarter to $6.7 billion in the second. Growth at that pace on such a large base would be exceptional for almost any software business, but it had been overshadowed by the even faster expansion of Anthropic, OpenAI's chief rival.

Bloomberg attributes the latest surge to strong demand for OpenAI's recent models. TechCrunch adds that the company has also leaned on more aggressive pricing, discounts and a renewed focus on enterprise products and AI agents that can carry out tasks on users' behalf.

Losses remain large but are shrinking

The report also touches on profitability: OpenAI's adjusted operating margin improved from -150% in the second quarter to -109% in the third. The company is still spending considerably more than it earns, but the trajectory suggests its economics are moving in the right direction as revenue scales.

Anthropic still leads on revenue

Even with the milestone, OpenAI trails Anthropic in raw revenue. Anthropic posted third-quarter revenue of $17 billion, and said its annualized revenue run rate grew by $10 billion in a single month to reach $81 billion as of the end of October. OpenAI's annual run rate now sits at roughly $50 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Direct comparisons carry a caveat: Anthropic's annualized figure includes sales generated by its cloud partners, whereas OpenAI counts only its own share of partner-driven sales, so the two numbers are not measured the same way.

OpenAI's historic strength has been consumer reach — the company says it has more than a billion users — though TechCrunch observes that most of them are likely on free tiers or its cheapest subscriptions. Anthropic, meanwhile, has built a lead in the enterprise market for AI models and is reportedly pursuing an IPO at a valuation of $1.4 trillion.

Why it matters

A $10 billion quarter is a marker for the entire AI industry, not just one company. It shows that demand for frontier models, agents and enterprise AI products is converting into revenue at a pace with few precedents in software history.

Two caveats temper the headline, though. First, the figures come from anonymous sources rather than audited disclosures, and the two leading labs tally their run rates differently, so any leaderboard should be read carefully. Second, an operating margin of -109% means OpenAI still loses slightly more than a dollar for every dollar of revenue it brings in — the industry's growth story and its profitability story remain very different narratives.

The competitive pressure also shows no sign of easing. Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Google are all pushing their own models, and cheaper yet highly capable open-source alternatives, particularly from Chinese labs, are competing for the same workloads. Holding this growth rate, let alone closing the gap with Anthropic, will not get easier from here.