OpenAI's revenue isn't keeping up with its expenses: ahead of its IPO, they totaled $34 billion — FT

OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, spent $34 billion and earned $13 billion last year, according to sources cited by the Financial Times. The company has been actively investing in the race for leadership in the rapidly growing AI market ahead of its initial public offering, the publication reports. OpenAI expects to go public in 2026.

Ahead of its IPO in 2025, the AI startup’s net loss soared nearly eightfold compared to 2024, but most of these expenses are non-cash accounting charges related to the revaluation of the company’s liabilities from the exercise of convertible equity rights, according to one of the newspaper’s sources. Following OpenAI’s reorganization—which Elon Musk challenged in court—losses will be significantly reduced, according to FT sources.

Audited financial figures, which the FT was able to confirm through its sources, show that in 2025 the company spent about $19 billion on research and development and nearly $6 billion on sales and marketing, in addition to other expenses. In total, the company’s expenses last year reached $34 billion. Spending rose sharply compared with the previous year, the publication notes: OpenAI’s revenue is not keeping pace with its growing expenses.

Last year, OpenAI's revenue totaled about $13 billion, according to sources who spoke with the FT. By the end of 2025, the company was generating $2 billion in revenue per month, up from $1 billion per quarter at the end of 2024, making it one of the fastest-growing businesses in history, the publication reports. However, heavy spending contributed to an almost eightfold increase in net losses: they soared from $5 billion in 2024 to approximately $39 billion in 2025, independent journalist Ed Zitron told the FT. One of the FT’s sources explained that the vast majority of this jump reflected non-cash accounting expenses related to the company’s previous structure, rather than its core operations.

Prior to last year’s restructuring of OpenAI—which Elon Musk attempted to challenge in court—the company had the status of a nonprofit organization. At that time, investors received not common stock but convertible equity interests from the company. Under U.S. accounting rules, these rights were recorded as liabilities and periodically revalued as the company’s valuation increased. According to an FT source, as OpenAI’s value rose, the increase in the value of these investor rights led to a write-down of approximately $30 billion. Following OpenAI’s conversion into a public benefit corporation—a for-profit company with a designated public benefit purpose—this expense is not expected to recur, the FT source emphasized. Excluding these write-downs and other non-cash items, OpenAI’s losses last year totaled $8 billion, according to one of the sources.

OpenAI declined to comment to the FT.

The publication notes that the company's expenses have so far been covered by investors. In March, OpenAI raised $122 billion in funding at a valuation of $730 billion, excluding new investments, and is preparing for an IPO that could value the company at more than $1 trillion.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor