OpenAI Revenue Reaches $10 Billion in Third Quarter, Up Nearly 50% Sequentially
Key Facts
OpenAI’s revenue rose about 50% in the third quarter of 2026 from the previous quarter to $10 billion, Yahoo Finance reported, citing the company’s results. CFO Sarah Friar said the company’s actual annualized revenue run rate grew 70% quarter over quarter and ended the quarter at nearly $50 billion. The figure distinguishes revenue earned during the quarter from the annualized run rate, which reflects the pace of revenue at period-end. Growth came as consumer activity and enterprise business expanded, two areas Friar said helped drive performance. The figures put the third quarter in the context of accelerating revenue at the company, whose annualized run rate had exceeded $20 billion in 2025, according to data published by OpenAI.
Friar said consumer activity grew 20% quarter over quarter and that 1.2 billion weekly active users use OpenAI’s services. The company described advanced research and enterprise business as growth drivers, citing coding tools, cybersecurity and virtual assistants among the products driving growth. This indicates that the increase was not limited to individual users, as Friar also linked performance to enterprise demand. In an interview with Yahoo Finance, she said growth “was driven by OpenAI’s advanced research and enterprise business.” She also said, “1.2 billion of them use the service every week, and this activity grew 20% quarter over quarter.”
OpenAI’s performance comes as rival Anthropic has also grown revenue at a strong pace. Anthropic’s third-quarter revenue reached $16.96 billion, up 47% from the previous quarter, according to a Reuters report published via Investing.com. Its revenue growth was 144% in the second quarter, making the quarterly increase in the third quarter lower than in the previous period. These figures relate to Anthropic and its disclosures, while OpenAI’s figures cited in the interview reflect its revenue and annualized run rate at quarter-end. In broader context on OpenAI’s trajectory, the company said its revenue tripled year over year in 2025 and its annualized run rate exceeded $20 billion that year.
Anthropic’s data highlights the scale of spending required to expand infrastructure tied to AI services. The company said it incurred $5 billion in additional compute costs in the third quarter, weakening efficiency gains and reducing revenue per dollar of compute compared with the previous quarter. It also disclosed $895.4 billion in compute and infrastructure spending commitments, of which about $69.8 billion is due in the twelve months following September 30, 2026. Those commitments represent future contractual spending, while the additional compute costs are expenses for the quarter. The OpenAI figures cited in the interview did not include a comparable figure for compute costs or spending commitments.
Anthropic’s financial data showed a divergence between operating and net losses in the third quarter. The company posted an operating loss of $567 million, after operating income of $974 million in the second quarter, while its net loss fell to $23.29 billion from $66.3 billion in the previous period. The Reuters report said the net loss includes non-operating items related to convertible notes, while the operating loss reflects the cost of the business, including compute and research. On enterprise demand, Anthropic said it had more than 11,900 customers, each of whom generated at least $100,000 in revenue during the twelve months through September 30, compared with more than 1,500 customers at the end of 2025. Bloomberg reported in October that OpenAI expected to reach or exceed an annualized revenue run rate of $70 billion by the end of 2026, after it stood at about $50 billion at the end of September.
On financing, Bloomberg reported on November 6 that OpenAI had closed a first tranche of about $11 billion in a funding round valuing the company at about $1.25 trillion. The report said the round could total $20 billion and that the company aimed to complete it in the following weeks. For Anthropic, a Reuters report published on November 2 said it was preparing to begin formally marketing its shares to investors the following week. These financing steps place revenue expansion and compute spending in the context of the companies’ efforts to fund their growth. OpenAI’s reported third-quarter revenue figures remain the focus of this report, while financing data and other disclosures represent separate developments in the sector.