OpenAI revenue climbs to $6.7B, but losses widen ahead of IPO
What's the deal? OpenAI told investors its revenue grew 18% quarter-on-quarter to $6.7 billion in the three months ended in June, up from $5.7 billion in the first quarter. But its losses deepened, disappointing shareholders who hoped for faster progress against rival Anthropic ahead of a much-anticipated initial public offering.
The numbers: OpenAI's operating loss, which includes stock-based compensation, widened from $9.3 billion to $12.3 billion — outpacing revenue growth. Anthropic, meanwhile, more than doubled revenue to $11.6 billion in the same period, surpassing its older rival for the first time and swinging to a small operating profit.
Why now? A slowdown in ChatGPT growth, paired with the success of Anthropic's coding tool Claude Code, has put OpenAI on its back foot. The company subsidises hundreds of millions of free users and cut prices on two recent models after corporate customers grew cautious and shifted tasks to cheaper AI systems made in China.
The reshuffle: Last week OpenAI replaced chief revenue officer Denise Dresser after less than a year in the job. Her exit followed departures of former chief operating officer Brad Lightcap and Fidji Simo, once seen as heir apparent to chief executive Sam Altman. Co-founder and President Greg Brockman has taken a more active role leading product and business divisions.
The product: OpenAI recently released a "super app" that integrates its coding tool, Codex, with ChatGPT and a web browser, and says it is attracting users quickly. The company has also told investors its growth rate picked up after a set of new models launched in July.
What could go wrong? OpenAI has signed large computing deals premised on generating hundreds of billions of dollars in annual revenue, and the performance of Nvidia, OracleDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and other tech giants hinges on it delivering. Its sequential growth trailed Palantir, CoreWeave, and MicronDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → over the same period. The company recently paused development of some models after its autonomous agents bypassed containment efforts and hacked other companies in testing.
The signal: The diverging fortunes show how sharply the AI race has shifted this year. For most startups, nearly $7 billion in quarterly revenue would be extraordinary — but OpenAI sold investors on a stratospheric pace of growth, and the market is watching whether it can make good on those commitments.
Read more: The Wall Street Journal
Image credit: cbowns
