OpenAI Still Faces Financial Pressure Despite Rapid Growth

AI is an important supporting force for this round of rising US stocks. However, the market has always been uncertain about the profitability of AI companies, and many pessimists believe that the market is falling into a huge AI foam.

According to industry insiders, OpenAI, as a leading player in the artificial intelligence industry, has achieved its goal of significant revenue growth this year. In the first seven months of this year, OpenAI’s revenue roughly doubled, with an expected annual revenue of $12 billion. This means OpenAI’s monthly revenue reaches around $1 billion.

At the same time, sources also pointed out that OpenAI’s flagship product ChatGPT has approximately 700 million active users per week, and both individual and enterprise users are widely using this AI tool.

The market once revealed that OpenAI’s revenue in 2024 was $3.7 billion, with a net loss of $5 billion, but the company has not confirmed specific revenue and loss figures since then. Nevertheless, this year’s annualized revenue of $12 billion still represents a significant breakthrough in the company’s financial performance and may also give investors more confidence.

The giant beast that eats money

The growth of OpenAI’s revenue mainly relies on the ChatGPT subscription business, which is estimated to account for 70% of OpenAI’s total revenue. On the other hand, the high operating costs remain a major obstacle to OpenAI’s development.

According to analysis, OpenAI’s revenue of $1 will be accompanied by a cost of $2.25. Roughly estimated, the company’s operating expenses this year are expected to exceed $28 billion, mainly related to Microsoft’s cloud computing services, Stargate data center project, and a $12.9 billion five-year agreement with CoreWeave.

In addition to financial figures, OpenAI is currently facing a fierce battle between innovation and talent. This year, several artificial intelligence researchers at OpenAI have switched jobs, which may weaken OpenAI’s technological leadership and increase the company’s labor costs.

This means that OpenAI still needs to continue raising massive funds to maintain its leading position. It is reported that OpenAI is working hard on its $40 billion financing plan announced in March this year, and on Monday of this week, it restarted the financing process to seek funding from new and old investors.

The round of financing was led by Japan’s SoftBank Group and raised $10 billion in the first phase, of which $7.5 billion came from SoftBank and the remaining funds came from other investors. OpenAI now hopes to complete the remaining $30 billion financing, of which $22.5 billion will come from SoftBank.

But if OpenAI fails to fulfill its restructuring commitment to SoftBank by the end of the year, SoftBank’s investment may be reduced to $10 billion.