OpenAI’s Quarterly Revenue Tops $10 Billion for the First Time
OpenAI’s revenue topped $10 billion in a single quarter for the first time in the three months to September, rising almost 50% from the $6.7 billion recorded in the previous quarter and nearly three times the level of a year earlier.
The figures were shared with investors on a call on Tuesday, 10 November, and first reported by The Information, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the figures, that chief financial officer Sarah Friar called it a “blockbuster quarter” and put the company’s annual revenue run rate at roughly $50 billion.
OpenAI has not publicly confirmed the figures. As a private company it does not publish audited quarterly accounts, so the numbers rest on reporting of what investors were told rather than on a public filing.
Enterprise sales double as coding tools lead growth
The strongest growth came from business customers. The enterprise business doubled quarter on quarter, and revenue is now split roughly evenly between enterprise and consumer sales, according to the reports. Coding, cyber and enterprise agents such as Dots led the growth, with the coding tool Codex becoming the company’s largest source of revenue.
Dealroom, summarising the investor figures, reported that consumer sales rose about 20% quarter on quarter, paid subscriptions passed 100 million and ChatGPT has 1.2 billion weekly active users.
The acceleration is striking. OpenAI posted $5.7 billion of revenue in the first quarter of 2026 and $6.7 billion in the second, growth of about 18% between the two quarters. The jump to more than $10 billion in the third quarter is growth of almost 50% in a single quarter, driven by tighter pricing, discounts, improving models and a sharper focus on products for businesses.
Losses widen even as margins improve
The revenue milestone has not brought OpenAI close to profit. Its operating loss widened to $10.9 billion in the quarter, from $10.1 billion in the previous three months, according to documents seen by the Wall Street Journal.
The picture looks better in percentage terms. The company’s adjusted operating margin improved to minus 109% from minus 150% in the second quarter, meaning it lost about $1.09 for every dollar of revenue, compared with $1.50 in the prior quarter. The improvement reflects revenue growing faster than costs, but the scale of the loss underlines how expensive it remains to train frontier models and run them for hundreds of millions of users.
That spending is the heart of the debate around the company. OpenAI’s cloud infrastructure commitments through 2030 total about $750 billion, and its fundraising has become harder to complete on the terms it first sought. The update comes weeks after OpenAI cut its fundraising target from $30 billion to $20 billion after some investors trimmed their commitments.
Anthropic pulls ahead on revenue
The figures also give investors a rare side-by-side look at the two leading AI laboratories. Anthropic, OpenAI’s closest rival, reported third-quarter revenue of about $17 billion, and said its annual revenue run rate had risen by $10 billion within a month to $81 billion at the end of October.
Anthropic’s IPO roadshow began this week, with the company seeking a valuation of up to $1.4 trillion. The comparison is not exact: the two companies calculate annualised revenue differently, with Anthropic counting sales made through its cloud partners while OpenAI counts only its share of some partner sales.
OpenAI filed confidentially for its own initial public offering in June 2026, so the valuation set in its current private fundraising round will be watched as a marker for any future listing. For now, the revenue figures show a company growing faster than almost any software business in history — and still spending even faster.
AI spending doubts linger
The numbers land in a nervous market. Investors have spent weeks questioning whether the enormous spending on AI infrastructure by the largest technology companies can deliver returns fast enough to justify current valuations. The Nasdaq 100 fell 3.46% on one Friday in late October and is down about 10% over the past three weeks.
There have been signs of reassurance. CoreWeave, the AI cloud provider, reported a 168% jump in revenue in its own third-quarter results, and chip stocks rallied this week on strong demand. OpenAI’s quarter will be read as further evidence that demand for AI services is real and growing — even if the profits, for now, remain a long way off.
Frequently asked questions
How much revenue did OpenAI report for the third quarter?
More than $10 billion, according to figures shared with investors on 10 November and reported by The Information, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. It is the first time the company’s quarterly revenue has passed $10 billion.
Is OpenAI profitable?
No. Its operating loss widened to $10.9 billion in the third quarter, from $10.1 billion in the previous quarter, although its adjusted operating margin improved from minus 150% to minus 109%.
How does OpenAI compare with Anthropic?
Anthropic reported about $17 billion of third-quarter revenue and an $81 billion annual revenue run rate, ahead of OpenAI’s roughly $50 billion run rate, though the two companies calculate annualised revenue differently.
