OpenAI Annualized Revenue Near $50B: Gross vs Net Explained

On October 8, 2026, the Financial Times reported, citing financial documents shared with investors, that OpenAI told investors its annualized revenue was approaching $50 billion at the end of September. Earlier reports, including some carried by Reuters, had put the figure near $70 billion. Reuters said it could not independently verify the FT report, and OpenAI declined to comment to the FT. Technology shares fell the same day, which is why a private company's internal metric became a public-market story.

The headline gap of about $20 billion does not mean OpenAI lost $20 billion of sales. As Benzinga's summary of the coverage put it, the difference reflects different ways of calculating the figure. This article explains what annualized revenue measures, how the gross versus net question works in accounting, and why one private company's number can move listed chip and cloud stocks.

OpenAI

Anthropic

NVIDIA

AWS

Google Cloud

The companies at the center of the story: two AI labs, the chipmaker most exposed to their spending, and the cloud partners whose resale revenue sits at the heart of the accounting question.

~$50BOpenAI annualized revenue, end of Septemberas told to investors, per the FT

~$70BFigure widely reported in late Septembersome outlets said about $68B

~1.4%Nasdaq decline on Oct 8afternoon trading

~5.5%Oracle decline on Oct 8intraday snapshot

What annualized revenue means

Annualized revenue, often called run rate, takes a recent slice of revenue and multiplies it up to a full year. Reuters noted that it is often calculated by multiplying one month by 12, and that fast-growing startups use it widely. It answers "what would a year look like if this pace held?", not "what did the company book last year?". Our earlier explainer on Anthropic's reported $100 billion run rate covers the mechanics and limits of the metric in more detail.

Because the method is a convention rather than an accounting standard, two companies can both say "annualized revenue" and mean different things. Run rate is not defined by GAAP, so there is no auditor-enforced definition of which sales belong in the numerator.

The gap: two ways of counting cloud partner sales

According to the FT account as relayed by Reuters, the discrepancy came from how the two leading labs calculate the figure. Anthropic includes sales made through cloud partners such as AWS and Google Cloud. OpenAI does not count those channel sales in the same way. Bloomberg's reporting, summarized by Crypto Briefing, described it as OpenAI including only its share of sales made through partners, while Anthropic counts the gross revenue from those partners.

According to the reporting, investors had sought to put OpenAI's revenue on the same basis as Anthropic's, which in practice meant adjusting OpenAI's figure upward to match Anthropic's method. Benzinga reported that earlier adjusted estimates implied about $40 billion in annualized revenue in August, and that the roughly $70 billion late-September figure grew from that grossed-up starting point after OpenAI said revenue had grown more than 70%. OpenAI's own disclosure to investors, near $50 billion, used its own method.

A note on terms: the FT and Reuters pieces we reviewed described the difference as counting full partner sales versus counting a share, and did not use the words "gross" and "net" themselves. The gross versus net label is the accounting lens most analysts apply to this kind of difference, and we use it below as an explanation, not as a confirmed description of either company's books.

The gap does not mean OpenAI lost $20 billion in sales. It reflects different ways of calculating the figure.
Paraphrasing Benzinga's summary of the FT report

Gross versus net: the principal and agent test

Under US GAAP, ASC 606 asks a company to decide whether it is a principal or an agent in each transaction. According to Deloitte's accounting guidance, the test is whether the entity controls the specified good or service before it transfers to the customer. A principal recognizes the gross amount the customer pays. An agent recognizes only its fee or commission for arranging the sale. The standard lists indicators, such as which party is primarily responsible for fulfilling the promise, inventory risk and pricing discretion, but treats them as evidence rather than a checklist.

Consider a stylized example, which is our illustration and not either company's actual contract. A customer pays a cloud provider $100 for access to an AI model through the provider's marketplace. If the lab records the full $100, that is gross. If the cloud provider keeps $20 and the lab records its $80 share, that is closer to net. The customer spent the same money, but the reported revenue differs by a quarter. Which treatment is right depends on contract terms and on who controls the service, and ASC 606 evaluates each specified good or service separately.

How markets moved on October 8, 2026

Percent change reported during the session after the Financial Times report on OpenAI's annualized revenue. Figures are intraday snapshots from Benzinga and CNN coverage, not confirmed closing prices, and other factors such as oil prices and Treasury yields also weighed on stocks that day.

Grey bar is the Nasdaq index; green bars are single stocks.

Why one private metric moved public stocks

The reaction on October 8 was broad. Benzinga reported the Nasdaq down about 1.4% in afternoon trading and Oracle down more than 5%, with Nvidia, AMD and Microsoft also lower. CNN's report, as summarized by search coverage, cited declines of about 2.9% for Nvidia, 5.3% for Intel and 5.5% for Oracle. Semiconductor ETFs SOXX and SMH fell 2% to 3%, according to the Yahoo Finance summary. Benzinga also noted that rising oil prices and Treasury yields weighed on stocks, and Barron's attributed only part of the decline to the OpenAI report, so the move should not be read as a single-cause event. Reported percentages vary by outlet and by time of day.

The curved LED display of the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square, New York, photographed from street level — The Nasdaq Tower in Times Square, photographed on May 12, 2026. The image shows the building and its display, not the October 8 trading session. Photo: Nielsoncaetanosalmeron, CC BY 4.0.

There are several channels through which a private lab's revenue can reach public prices. Listed suppliers earn money from the labs' spending on chips, cloud capacity and financing, so a slower revenue path raises questions about how long that spending can continue. Bloomberg's Lisa Abramowicz, quoted by Benzinga, pointed to the selloff as evidence of the tech sector's dependence on OpenAI and Anthropic. The Wall Street Journal reported the same day that Broadcom was working to arrange more than $50 billion in financing for custom chips developed with OpenAI, an example of how closely supplier balance sheets are tied to lab growth.

Valuation arithmetic matters too. OpenAI is reportedly seeking at least $30 billion at a roughly $1.4 trillion valuation, which we covered in our funding round analysis. Benzinga calculated that $1.4 trillion is about 28 times a $50 billion run rate versus 20 times a $70 billion one, while cautioning that the two estimates are not directly comparable. Sam Altman has ruled out a 2026 IPO, per the same report, leaving 2027 as a possible listing year.

Competing interpretations

A measurement story. If the difference is only methodology, the underlying business has not changed, and the revision reflects better comparability. The direction of OpenAI's growth would be unaffected; only the level being compared changes.
An expectations story. Markets may have priced the roughly $70 billion number into suppliers' outlooks, so a lower comparable figure resets expectations even if sales did not fall.
A disclosure story. An IPO would force both labs to publish audited results under one accounting framework. Reuters noted that OpenAI and Anthropic may go public, which could give Wall Street a clearer view of their finances.

What to watch next

Whether OpenAI or Anthropic publishes a definition of run rate, or reports both a gross and a net figure side by side.
Whether the funding round's terms shift in light of the lower comparable figure.
How Anthropic's reported trajectory, which our earlier coverage placed on track for about $100 billion in 2026, is restated if comparisons are standardized.
Any audited filings, which would settle what each company recognizes as revenue under ASC 606.

For teams that work across several model providers, the episode is a reminder that headline vendor metrics are not interchangeable. A model-agnostic workspace such as Metir lets you evaluate providers on the outputs you actually get rather than on a competitor's marketing numbers.

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Image credits

Nasdaq MarketSite, Times Square (hero): photo by ajay_suresh, Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0. Shows the building exterior in 2021, not the October 2026 market move.
Nasdaq Tower, May 2026: photo by Nielsoncaetanosalmeron, Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 4.0. Shows the building exterior, not the October 2026 market move.