OpenAI tells investors annualized revenue neared $70 billion by September

OpenAI told investors its annualized revenue reached nearly $70 billion by the end of September. That figure puts the ChatGPT maker in revenue territory once reserved for established tech giants.

The update lands as OpenAI is reportedly preparing for a potential IPO targeted for 2027.

What the numbers actually say

The headline metric is annualized revenue, often called the run rate. It is a snapshot of current pace, projected forward, not the same as revenue already booked over a full year.

OpenAI’s prior benchmark was an annualized run rate of approximately $40 billion in August. Moving from roughly $40 billion to nearly $70 billion within about two months represents growth of more than 70% since the start of Q3 2026.

The growth driver appears to be business customers. Enterprise revenue more than doubled since July, signaling that corporate buyers are moving beyond pilot programs and writing bigger checks.

Consumers are spending too. Revenue from consumer products in the third quarter alone exceeded OpenAI’s total consumer revenue for all of 2025. That category includes ChatGPT subscriptions, the product that made the company a household name.

Revenue up, profits still missing

Strong sales have not translated into profits. OpenAI remains unprofitable, weighed down by the heavy cost of the infrastructure and model training that power its products.

The ripple effects

The update did not stay contained to OpenAI. Oracle, which supplies computing capacity tied to OpenAI’s operations, saw its shares climb following the news, with reported gains reaching as much as 8%.

The competitive backdrop matters too. OpenAI is locked in a race with rival AI developers, most notably Anthropic, for both enterprise contracts and developer mindshare.

What this means

For investors, the most important detail may be the enterprise surge rather than the top-line figure. Enterprise contracts tend to be stickier, with longer commitments and deeper integration into business workflows.

Still, run-rate figures deserve scrutiny. They capture momentum at a single point in time. Public market investors will eventually want audited, full-year revenue alongside a credible route to profitability.

The profitability gap is the risk to watch. OpenAI’s costs scale with its ambitions, and if infrastructure spending continues to outpace revenue growth, even a nearly $70 billion run rate may not be enough to close the gap anytime soon.