OpenAI told investors that its annualized revenue was approaching $50 billion at the end of September, the Financial Times reported on October 8. Bloomberg and CNBC confirmed the figure with their own sources. Reports in late September had put it at $68 billion to $70 billion. OpenAI declined to comment.
New to this? Read it in simple words
- OpenAI told investors its yearly sales pace was nearly $50 billion.
- Reports a week earlier had said about $70 billion.
- The bigger number counted sales in a different way.
- Shares of AI chip and cloud companies fell on the news.
- Run rate
- A yearly figure made by taking recent sales and projecting them over a full year.
- Gross revenue
- All the money from sales, before partners take their share.
- Private company
- A company whose shares are not traded on a stock market, so it need not publish results.
What the reports say
The Financial Times reported on October 8 that OpenAI told investors its annualized revenue was approaching $50 billion at the end of September. Annualized revenue, or a run rate, takes recent sales and projects them over a full year.
Bloomberg and CNBC each confirmed the figure with their own sources. CNBC says its source showed it an investor presentation. OpenAI declined to comment to the FT, and it did not answer TechCrunch.
OpenAI’s annualized revenue at the end of September, as reported by the FT, Bloomberg and CNBC; OpenAI has published no figure.
Where $70 billion came from
On September 29, Axios reported that OpenAI’s run rate was nearing $70 billion, and Reuters confirmed it with one source. CNBC reported about $68 billion the same day.
The reports now say that the higher number counted the gross revenue earned through OpenAI’s partners. Anthropic counts its sales through cloud partners such as Amazon and Google in that way, while OpenAI does not.
According to the FT, the $70 billion figure came from OpenAI’s own investors, who wanted to compare it with Anthropic. CNBC’s source says the same presentation showed run-rate growth of 77% in the third quarter, and 107% for business customers.
How the market reacted
AI shares fell on Thursday, October 8. In trading that afternoon, Oracle was down nearly 6%, Nvidia about 3% and CoreWeave nearly 8%, CNBC reported. AMD and Broadcom were down about 4%.
Many of these companies sell chips or computing power to OpenAI, so its income matters for theirs. The figures above are moves during trading, not closing prices.
Sources
Every fact in this story comes from the sources below. Open them to check our work.
- 1
- 2Research · October 8, 2026Nvidia, Oracle, CoreWeave and other AI stocks sink on OpenAI revenue report CNBC
- 3Research · October 8, 2026OpenAI’s revenue is reportedly $20 billion less than previously projected TechCrunch
- 4Research · October 8, 2026OpenAI’s annualized revenue $20 billion lower than prior investor estimates Yahoo Finance
- 5Research · September 29, 2026OpenAI’s annualized recurring revenue nears $70 billion, source says Reuters, via The Star
OpenAI has published no figure, so the story rests on three outlets with their own sources. The revenue numbers are what OpenAI told investors, and nobody outside has audited them.
OpenAI’s reported revenue pace came in about $20 billion below earlier reports, and AI chip and cloud shares fell. How we rate the mood