OpenAI’s Revenue Run Rate Tops $40 Billion as IPO Nears

OpenAI is now on pace to bring in annualized revenue of more than $40 billion, roughly double its run rate from the end of 2025. The jump gives the ChatGPT maker fresh momentum as it prepares to go public. For the banking, payments and fintech firms watching how AI vendors turn usage into money, the number signals that enterprise demand for AI tools keeps climbing even as the cost of building them stays high.

The OpenAI $40 billion revenue run-rate figure comes from a Bloomberg report published Aug. 13, which cited people familiar with the company’s performance who spoke on condition of anonymity. According to Bloomberg, the acceleration was driven in part by growth in OpenAI’s AI coding software, along with gains from subscription sales and a new advertising business. The company’s core consumer business is still growing too. OpenAI declined to comment to Bloomberg.

As part of an internal announcement about a new hire, OpenAI cofounder and President Greg Brockman shared how fast that growth is running. Bloomberg reported that “the company’s annual revenue run rate increased more than 20% month-over-month in July.”

The report also placed OpenAI in its ongoing contest with rival Anthropic. Both firms have filed confidential paperwork to go public, and Anthropic is expected to reach the market as soon as this fall, ahead of OpenAI. Anthropic said in May that its run-rate revenue had crossed $47 billion, though Bloomberg noted the two companies may not measure the figure the same way.

On Thursday, OpenAI named its second chief revenue officer in under a year, tapping a cybersecurity executive to help push sales. The company has also seen a sharp rise in demand for its AI agents, including Codex for coding and ChatGPT Work, and it has cut prices on some models to compete for cost-conscious customers against Anthropic and a growing list of Chinese rivals.

PYMNTS has tracked OpenAI’s revenue climb through the year. In May, PYMNTS reported that the company generated close to $6 billion in first-quarter revenue, with Codex, business sales and ChatGPT advertising tests driving the gains. In June, PYMNTS covered OpenAI’s plan to rebuild ChatGPT into a super app ahead of its IPO, with enterprise sales already making up more than 40% of revenue. PYMNTS also reported on OpenAI’s planned purchase of Ona to expand Codex for enterprise workflows.