OpenAI told investors its annualized revenue for September was almost $50 billion, a person familiar with the presentation told Reuters and CNBC. That figure is roughly $20 billion below the $68-70 billion run rate that had circulated in late September. The company did not comment publicly on the numbers.
The gap came from accounting treatment of sales through cloud partners. Anthropic includes the full customer payment when it sells through AWS or Google Cloud and records the partner's cut as an expense. OpenAI counts only its own share on certain partner deals. Investors had constructed the higher number to make a more direct comparison with Anthropic's reported run rate, according to the sources.
The same investor materials showed total run-rate growth of 77% in the third quarter and 107% growth in the enterprise segment. OpenAI began the year near $20 billion in annualized revenue. Shares of Nvidia, Oracle, and CoreWeave declined on the day the lower figure became public, with Oracle down more than 5% in one session.
Key takeaways
- September annualized revenue: almost $50 billion, per investor materials.
- Earlier $68-70 billion figure included partner gross revenue for comparison with Anthropic.
- Enterprise run rate grew 107% in Q3; company expects to reach $70 billion by year-end 2026.
What OpenAI's $50 billion September run rate actually measures
Annualized revenue, or run rate, projects recent sales over a full year. It is not the same as audited full-year revenue. The $50 billion number reflects OpenAI's own recognized revenue. The higher figure that circulated earlier was an adjusted view built by investors so the two labs could be compared on a similar basis. Neither company has published a full reconciliation of the difference.
OpenAI's enterprise business has accelerated. The 107% enterprise growth rate in the third quarter is the stronger of the two metrics the company shared. The company is also in talks to raise at least $30 billion at a $1.4 trillion valuation, according to Bloomberg reporting tied to the same investor discussions. That round would follow a March raise of $122 billion at an $852 billion valuation.
What to watch next
The next data point is whether OpenAI's own run rate reaches the $70 billion level the company has told investors it expects by the end of 2026. Partner accounting differences will remain relevant for any side-by-side comparison with Anthropic. Public comments from either lab on how they book cloud-partner revenue would clarify the gap that moved markets this week.
Related reading on the content side of AI tools: How AI is Reshaping the Content Creator Stack in 2026.