Key Highlights

  • OpenAI's Revenue reportedly rose about 50% to roughly USD 10 billion in the third quarter of 2026, the first time it has topped that level in a single quarter.
  • The company's operating loss widened to about USD 10.9 billion from USD 10.1 billion in the prior quarter, although its adjusted Operating Margin improved to about negative 109% from negative 150%.
  • Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), OpenAI's largest outside investor and cloud partner, fell 2.2% on November 10 and about 2% on November 11 amid wider concerns about AI competition and spending.
  • The figures emerged as rival Anthropic marketed its IPO at a valuation of up to about USD 1.4 trillion, with annualised run-rate revenue of about USD 81 billion.

What the Numbers Show

The reported results highlight both the scale and the cost of frontier AI. Revenue of about USD 10 billion in a quarter puts OpenAI on an annual pace of around USD 40 billion, driven by ChatGPT subscriptions for consumers and businesses and by sales of access to its models through application programming interfaces. Growth of roughly 50% shows Demand remains strong. Yet the company still spends far more than it earns. An operating loss of about USD 10.9 billion means costs ran at roughly twice revenue, mainly because of the computing power needed to train and run large models. The improvement in adjusted margin suggests some Operating Leverage as revenue grows faster than certain costs, but the absolute loss is still widening. These figures were reported by the press and have not been published by the company in a formal filing, since OpenAI is privately held. They nonetheless provide a rare look at its finances.

The Microsoft Connection

Microsoft is OpenAI's most important partner. It holds a large economic stake, provides much of the cloud capacity OpenAI uses and integrates its models into products such as Copilot and Azure AI services. OpenAI's growth therefore supports Azure revenue, as the company consumes large amounts of computing capacity. At the same time, OpenAI's losses raise questions about how long such spending can continue without new funding. Microsoft's shares have also been pressured by competition: Anthropic launched Claude Sheets, Whiteboards and Data tools this week that challenge Office, and investors sold large AI spenders on Wednesday even as chip stocks surged. Microsoft is also hedging its exposure, joining the USD 26 billion private Placement in Anthropic's IPO. The company's Market Value stood near USD 3.87 trillion after the two-day decline, behind both Apple and Nvidia.

The Competitive Landscape

The comparison with Anthropic is striking. Anthropic disclosed run-rate revenue of about USD 81 billion as of October 31, though it also reported a net loss of more than USD 104 billion in the first nine months of the year. Both companies are spending heavily to win enterprise customers. OpenAI is also expanding into new services, including its reported Acquisition of AI travel agent Odessia, which weighed on online travel stocks. For investors, the key question is which model developers can convert usage into durable profits. Pricing pressure is intense, since rivals keep cutting the cost of access to their models, and computing costs remain high even as chips become more efficient.

Where Things Stand

OpenAI's reported quarter shows rapid revenue growth alongside very large losses. Investors in Microsoft will watch Azure growth, Copilot adoption and any change in OpenAI's funding or Partnership terms. The Anthropic IPO on November 19 will provide the first public market valuation of a leading model developer and a benchmark for OpenAI. Any formal disclosure from OpenAI would also help confirm the reported figures. Funding news also matters.