OpenAI doubles its revenue in one year, hits the $10 billion mark

OpenAI

OpenAI has reached $10 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR), doubling its run rate from just a year ago, according to a report by CNBC. The figure, disclosed by an OpenAI spokesperson, includes revenue from consumer-facing ChatGPT subscriptions, enterprise offerings, and its API business. Notably, it excludes licensing income from Microsoft and any large one-off deals, as per the report.

OpenAI’s rise has been rapid: just three years after ChatGPT launched, the AI firm now claims over 500 million weekly users and three million paying business customers. In February, that figure of paying customers stood at two million — underlining just how quickly adoption is growing in the enterprise segment.

But the growth has come with massive burn. In 2023, OpenAI reportedly lost around $5 billion — a stark reminder that AI scale isn’t cheap. Training and serving foundation models like GPT-4 and its newer variants require enormous computing resources, and OpenAI continues to invest heavily in both model development and infrastructure.

Despite the losses, OpenAI is projecting aggressive ambitions: $125 billion in revenue by 2029, according to a person familiar with internal targets. That would put it on a trajectory to rival today’s tech giants. The Information first reported these ambitious revenue goals.

The numbers also help contextualise OpenAI’s stratospheric valuation. In March, the company raised $40 billion in the largest private tech deal ever, valuing the San Francisco-based firm at roughly 30 times its current revenue. That’s a multiple more commonly seen in pre-profit software unicorns than infrastructure-heavy AI labs — but investors appear to be betting on OpenAI’s first-mover advantage and deep integration with enterprise software.

OpenAI’s backers include Microsoft, SoftBank, Thrive Capital, Coatue, and Altimeter. With Microsoft integrating OpenAI’s models into everything from Office to Azure, the two companies’ fates are increasingly intertwined — even though Microsoft’s licensing revenue is not counted in OpenAI’s ARR.