OpenAI’s annualized revenue run rate has climbed to nearly $70 billion, according to financial data cited by Axios.
That represents an increase of more than 70% since the beginning of the third quarter and highlights the rapid commercial growth of the company’s AI business.
The milestone comes as OpenAI holds its annual DevDay conference in San Francisco, placing additional attention on the expansion of its developer ecosystem.
Business and Consumer Revenue Accelerate
OpenAI’s growth appears to be broad-based.
Business-to-business revenue has reportedly increased by more than 100% since July 2026.
Consumer revenue has also expanded sharply. Revenue added during the third quarter alone has already surpassed the company’s total consumer revenue generated during all of 2025.
Subscriptions, enterprise demand, the Codex coding platform and a developing advertising business are among the major contributors to growth.
The latest annualized revenue estimate of roughly $70 billion is based on the company’s most recent monthly pace.
That marks a significant increase from the approximately $40 billion run rate reported only a month earlier.
OpenAI Profitability Still Remains Unclear
Despite the strong revenue growth, questions remain around OpenAI’s profitability.
Axios noted that there is still limited visibility into the company’s overall cost structure.
As a result, investors do not yet have a clear picture of how quickly rising revenue is translating into operating profits or positive cash flow.
This remains especially important because advanced AI models require significant spending on computing infrastructure, data centers and cloud services.
Anthropic Pushes Toward a Potential IPO
OpenAI’s rapid expansion comes as rival Anthropic moves closer to the public markets.
Anthropic’s annualized revenue run rate reportedly surpassed $65 billion by the end of July.
That represents more than seven times the pace recorded at the end of 2025.
A draft IPO prospectus reviewed by Reuters also reportedly showed that Anthropic’s booked revenue jumped twelvefold to almost $4.6 billion during 2025.
The filing highlighted substantial future cloud and computing commitments, totaling around $518 billion.
It also included a risk disclosure addressing concerns that advanced artificial intelligence could create major risks for society.
Investors Use Microsoft and Oracle as AI Proxies
Because OpenAI and Anthropic remain privately held, public market investors have limited ways to gain direct exposure to their growth.
Instead, companies with close commercial relationships to the AI labs have increasingly become investment proxies.
Oracle shares rose sharply following reports of OpenAI’s latest revenue growth, reflecting the company’s close connection to AI cloud infrastructure.
Microsoft also remains deeply linked to OpenAI through its commercial and technology partnerships.
The company reportedly generated $24.1 billion in fiscal 2026 revenue from arrangements connected with OpenAI.
OpenAI Valuation Reaches Historic Levels
OpenAI was valued at approximately $852 billion following a funding round in March 2026.
Reports have also suggested that early discussions have taken place around a potential valuation as high as $1.2 trillion.
Such figures highlight the scale of investor expectations surrounding the generative AI sector.
They also increase the importance of any future public listing.
Anthropic IPO Could Set the First Major AI Benchmark
A potential Anthropic IPO could become one of the most important events in the artificial intelligence investment landscape.
A public listing would give investors one of the first clear valuation benchmarks for a major generative AI company.
It would also allow markets to compare Anthropic’s financial performance directly with OpenAI and other AI developers.
OpenAI IPO Could Reveal Its True Financial Picture
OpenAI has not announced a confirmed IPO date.
However, a future public filing would provide investors with audited revenue, expense and cash flow figures.
That could finally answer one of the biggest questions surrounding OpenAI: whether its extraordinary revenue growth can eventually translate into equally strong profitability.
AI IPO Race Could Impact the Broader Tech Sector
The potential public debuts of OpenAI and Anthropic could have major implications beyond the companies themselves.
Microsoft, Oracle, semiconductor companies and data center operators all benefit from the massive infrastructure spending required to support artificial intelligence.
Strong IPO valuations could reinforce investor confidence in this spending cycle.
However, weaker-than-expected margins or high operating costs could also force markets to reassess the economics of the AI boom.
For now, OpenAI’s nearly $70 billion revenue run rate suggests that demand for generative AI continues to grow at an extraordinary pace.
