OpenAI's revenue reportedly runs $20 billion below earlier projections

OpenAI reportedly puts annualized revenue near $50 billion rather than $70 billion. Different accounting methods complicate the gap and IPO comparisons.

Oct 11, 2026

OpenAI has reportedly told investors its annualized revenue is approaching $50 billion, about $20 billion below the figure reported a little over a week earlier. TechCrunch’s October 8 report, citing the Financial Times, says the earlier $70 billion estimate came from investors’ efforts to compare OpenAI with Anthropic.

The accounting difference matters. Anthropic includes sales made by its cloud partners in its annualized revenue calculation. OpenAI excludes those sales, according to TechCrunch.

A revenue comparison ahead of a possible IPO

TechCrunch also reports that OpenAI’s expected IPO has moved to early 2027 after earlier rumors of a listing this year. The outlet said it had contacted OpenAI for comment.

The figures describe an annualized run rate, which projects recent revenue over a year. Readers assessing the company’s finances need to distinguish that measure from revenue earned across a completed financial year.

Our analysis

A smaller revenue denominator changes the valuation comparison

Using the rounded figures, $50 billion is about 29% below $70 billion. For any fixed valuation, dividing by $50 billion instead of $70 billion produces a valuation-to-revenue-run-rate ratio that is 40% higher. That calculation shows why the revenue definition matters when assessing an IPO price, even before the valuation changes.

But interpreting the gap as a 29% fall in sales would require comparable measurements at two dates. This report describes an earlier investor comparison and a later figure attributed to OpenAI, with different treatment of cloud-partner sales. It supplies no reconciliation showing how much of the $20 billion gap comes from that difference.

Before comparing OpenAI’s revenue with Anthropic’s, check which sales each figure includes and which period each annualization uses. Those details determine whether the comparison measures business growth or a change in what gets counted. The two headline numbers alone cannot settle that question.

Sources

TechCrunch: OpenAI’s revenue is reportedly $20 billion less than previously projected