OpenAI posted $9B net loss in 2025

OpenAI’s 2025 finances show how quickly the company’s business is growing and how much cash it is consuming at the same time. CNBC reported on February 20 that OpenAI generated $13.1 billion in revenue in 2025 and burned through $8 billion, citing people familiar with the company’s investor materials. That implies a gap between what the company brought in and what it spent as it expanded computing capacity, hired staff and pushed its products into consumer and enterprise markets. March 4 added another marker for the pace of that growth. Reuters reported that OpenAI topped $25 billion in annualized revenue by the end of February 2026, citing The Information and a person familiar with the figure. Reuters said that was up 17% from $21.4 billion in annualized revenue at the end of 2025. (cnbc.com) ### Where does the $9 billion loss figure come from? The $9 billion figure comes from combining reported revenue and spending totals for 2025. CNBC said OpenAI told investors it generated $13.1 billion in revenue last year and targeted about $600 billion in total compute spending through 2030. The same report said the company burned through $8 billion in 2025, lower than a $9 billion target. (money.usnews.com) A separate framing of the same year’s finances has circulated as roughly $22 billion in spending against $13.1 billion in revenue. That arithmetic points to an annual loss of about $9 billion. Bloomberg had reported on March 26, 2025 that OpenAI expected revenue to reach $12.7 billion for 2025, after generating $3.7 billion in 2024, showing that the company ultimately exceeded that earlier revenue forecast. (cnbc.com) ### What is driving revenue higher so quickly? OpenAI’s own March 31, 2026 funding announcement said the company is now generating $2 billion in revenue per month. The company also said it reached $1 billion in quarterly revenue by the end of 2024 and was nearing 1 billion weekly active users. Reuters reported that OpenAI’s annualized revenue passed $25 billion by the end of February 2026. (bloomberg.com) That figure is a run-rate, not a full-year booked total, but it shows how much faster the company’s paid products were scaling after ChatGPT’s consumer adoption and a broader push into enterprise sales. (openai.com) ### Why are costs still outrunning sales? February 20 investor materials described by CNBC showed OpenAI is still planning enormous infrastructure outlays. CNBC reported the company had reset its compute target to roughly $600 billion by 2030, down from a previously cited $1.4 trillion commitment figure, while still projecting more than $280 billion in revenue in 2030. (money.usnews.com) March 31, 2025 showed how OpenAI was financing that buildout. OpenAI said it had raised $40 billion at a $300 billion post-money valuation, with SoftBank as a partner, to scale compute infrastructure and support products used by 500 million weekly ChatGPT users at the time. March 31, 2026 brought a much larger capital raise. OpenAI said it closed a $122 billion funding round at an $852 billion post-money valuation, and said the proceeds would support research, product delivery and durable access to compute. (cnbc.com) The company named Amazon, Nvidia, SoftBank and Microsoft among the strategic backers in that round. ### What about the HSBC warning and the $207 billion funding gap? (openai.com) The HSBC estimate cited in social posts this week could not be independently verified from a primary HSBC publication available online. Secondary reports have described HSBC Global Investment Research as projecting that OpenAI could face a $207 billion funding gap by 2030 under heavy infrastructure-spending assumptions, but those accounts rely on summaries rather than a publicly posted bank report. (openai.com) CNBC’s February 20 report supports the broader point that investors were scrutinizing whether OpenAI’s revenue could keep up with its compute bill. That report said the company reset spending expectations to about $600 billion through 2030 after concerns that earlier expansion plans were too large relative to expected revenue. (analyticsinsight.net) ### What is the next number to watch? March 31, 2026 is the latest dated milestone OpenAI has published on its financing. On that date, the company said it had closed $122 billion in committed capital and was generating $2 billion in monthly revenue, figures that will frame the next disclosures investors and competitors watch most closely. (openai.com) (cnbc.com)