OpenAI's annualized revenue points to a $70 billion enterprise business as an engine

The Zhitong Finance App learned that according to people familiar with the matter, OpenAI expects annualized revenue to reach or exceed 70 billion US dollars by the end of this year, mainly driven by corporate business growth. According to these sources, the ChatGPT developer's annualized revenue as of the end of September was about 50 billion US dollars. This figure is based on an estimate of OpenAI's annual sales over a shorter period of time.

People familiar with the matter said that the company shared these data with investors during discussions on the latest round of financing. It was first reported in September that OpenAI is in talks to raise $30 billion or more with a pre-investment valuation of $1.4 trillion.

OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI companies often promote annualized revenue as a key growth indicator. However, not all companies use the same measurement methods. As previously reported, Anthropic's annualized revenue as of the end of July reached 65 billion US dollars.

Some media reported last month that, based on investors' estimates, OpenAI has estimated annualized revenue of close to 70 billion US dollars. The difference stemmed from OpenAI's investors trying to calculate OpenAI's annualized revenue using the same method as competitor Anthropic PBC, which handled sales of cloud service providers differently, the latter reported on Thursday.

Technology stocks led the decline in the S&P 500 index on Thursday after reports that OpenAI's annualized revenue would be lower than some previous estimates. The Nasdaq 100 index fell 1.4%, and the chip giants index fell 3.4%.

Although OpenAI has postponed its initial public offering until at least next year due to its focus on AI security, Anthropic is expected to conduct an IPO sale as early as November.

According to reports, OpenAI is in talks with several investment funds from the UAE, including Abu Dhabi-headquartered MGX, to help anchor its new round of financing.

The company recently completed a round of financing of US$122 billion in March, with a valuation of US$852 billion after including this capital.