OpenAI crossed $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time — and still lost more money than it made. The ChatGPT maker told investors on Tuesday that third-quarter revenue rose nearly 50% to $10 billion, according to Reuters, citing a Wall Street Journal report. It is the fastest revenue growth the company has posted in a year: the second quarter grew just 18%.
The loss side of the ledger barely moved. OpenAI's operating loss widened to $10.9 billion from $10.1 billion in the prior quarter, though its adjusted operating margin improved to -109% from -150% — it now loses about $1.09 for every dollar it takes in, rather than $1.50. Those adjusted figures exclude $2.6 billion in stock-based compensation for the quarter.
What is driving the growth is no longer just ChatGPT subscriptions. Enterprise revenue doubled quarter over quarter, CFO Sarah Friar told CNBC, and now splits OpenAI's revenue roughly evenly with the consumer business. The API did the heavy lifting, with demand for GPT-5.6, Astra and its image models leading the way. ChatGPT now reaches 1.2 billion weekly active users, and one report put paying users at nearly 100 million after 22 million joined in the quarter. The annual revenue run rate sits at roughly $50 billion — and advertising, which reportedly hit a $1 billion annualized pace in August, is now a real third leg.
The uncomfortable comparison is Anthropic. The Claude maker, in the middle of its IPO roadshow, disclosed roughly $17 billion in third-quarter revenue with a $567 million operating loss. OpenAI has more users and more cultural gravity; Anthropic has nearly twice the revenue and a loss roughly one-twentieth the size. That is the gap investors are about to price in public: Anthropic's roadshow launched Tuesday at $70–$78 a share, targeting a valuation near $1.4 trillion, while OpenAI is raising at a reported $1.25 trillion.
Watch whether the enterprise business keeps doubling — it is the only line in these numbers growing fast enough to eventually cover the compute bill. If it does not, OpenAI's story stops being about how fast revenue grows and starts being about how long investors will fund a company that loses more than it makes in its best quarter ever.
— via Reuters