OpenAI Quarterly Revenue Reportedly Tops $10B for First Time
OpenAI has reportedly crossed $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time. The company had a rough stretch earlier this year, and Bloomberg's sources describe a rebound.
Anthropic set the pace on enterprise sales
Anthropic has taken the lead in selling AI models to businesses. It recently reported third-quarter revenue of $17 billion, and the Claude-maker has pulled ahead at least in revenue growth.
OpenAI's wider focus won it a large audience early. It says it has more than a billion users. TechCrunch judges that most of them are probably free users or people on the cheapest plans.
Two run rates that are counted differently
Bloomberg puts OpenAI's annual revenue run rate at $50 billion. Anthropic said a day earlier that its own rate grew by $10 billion in a month and stood at $81 billion at the end of October. It is also seeking a $1.4 trillion valuation in an IPO that is likely to come soon.
The two figures are not like for like. Anthropic counts sales made by its cloud partners. OpenAI reports only its share of some partner sales.
Neither company is alone in the field. Models from Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Google compete with both, and so do cheaper open-source models, especially those from Chinese labs.
What the Bloomberg report says about the quarter
The $10 billion figure comes from Bloomberg, which relied on anonymous sources. It credits strong demand for OpenAI's recent AI models. If it is accurate, sales are almost 50% above the $6.7 billion reportedly booked in the second quarter.
That would speed up growth. The earlier pace was said to be about 18% from the first quarter to the second. Even that was large on a base of $5.7 billion, and TechCrunch notes it beats what most software companies manage.
The loss picture also looks better. The report says the adjusted operating margin improved, going from -150% in Q2 to -109% in Q3.
Pricing and products behind the rebound
TechCrunch credits pricing discipline, discounts, better models, and a push into enterprise products, among them AI agents that handle tasks for users.
Source: TechCrunch