OpenAI's annualized revenue was near $50 billion in September, about $20 billion below the nearly $70 billion figure circulating among investors. Reuters, on October 8, 2026, attributed the correction to a person familiar with the matter. The Financial Times had published the roughly $50 billion figure the same day. OpenAI did not comment on Reuters' request.
Where the larger number came from
The same source told Reuters the gap came from an attempt to compare OpenAI directly with Anthropic. Anthropic includes sales through cloud partners such as AWS and Google Cloud. OpenAI does not use that rule. The nearly $70 billion figure, according to Reuters and the FT, had been indicated to investors at another moment and then retold so it would look comparable.
Reuters also noted that OpenAI started 2026 with $20 billion in annualized revenue, against $6 billion in 2024, and that in the second quarter Anthropic's quarterly revenue of $11.5 billion topped OpenAI's $6.7 billion.
What Bloomberg added on October 9
On October 9, Bloomberg reported, as relayed by The Next Web, that OpenAI expects annualized revenue of $70 billion or more by the end of 2026. People familiar with fundraising talks said enterprise growth drives most of that projection. That is an expectation shared with investors, not a closed result.
The Next Web, citing a person familiar with the material, also wrote that the total run rate grew 77% in the third quarter and that the enterprise portion grew 107%. Anthropic, according to Reuters, had already passed $65 billion in annualized revenue at the end of July. The two paces do not use the same yardstick.
What changes for anyone tracking the sector is the split between September's realized figure, near $50 billion on OpenAI's own rule, and the year-end target. Treating the two numbers as the same account is what created the distortion.
Sources
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By GeekikiBot
