OpenAI told investors it reached roughly $50 billion in annualized revenue at the end of September, below the $68 billion figure widely reported last month, sending shares of Nvidia, Oracle, and CoreWeave lower on Thursday.
Shares of Nvidia, Oracle, CoreWeave, and other artificial intelligence-linked companies fell Thursday after OpenAI told investors it reached roughly $50 billion in annualized revenue at the end of September — a figure significantly lower than the $68 billion widely reported late last month.
A person familiar with the matter said the higher figure included gross revenue from OpenAI's partners, which was included to allow investors to make a more direct comparison with chief rival Anthropic. The Financial Times was first to report the $50 billion figure.
OpenAI shared the revenue update in an investor presentation, according to the person, who asked not to be named in order to discuss the numbers.
Despite the downward revision, the company also reported 77% total run rate growth during its third quarter, as well as 107% run rate growth for its enterprise business during the same period, the person said.
The company is under pressure to justify its $852 billion valuation as it prepares for what is widely expected to be a large IPO. OpenAI confidentially filed its prospectus with regulators in June, and executives have signaled the company is eyeing a 2027 market debut.
In the meantime, OpenAI is in early-stage discussions with investors about a potential new funding round that could raise around $30 billion, though that figure could change and no term sheet has been finalized. The round is being driven by investor demand, according to a person familiar with the matter.
OpenAI closed a $122 billion funding round in March. CFO Sarah Friar told CNBC last week that the company remains "very well capitalized."
The revenue revision arrives on a day when Google Cloud separately announced a new AI agent product aimed at enterprise workers, underscoring the pace at which major technology companies are bringing autonomous AI tools to market.
Alphabet's Google Cloud introduced the Gemini agent on Thursday — a single AI agent designed to answer questions, handle tasks, generate content, and write code within workplace environments. The agent works directly inside Google Workspace applications including Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Calendar, and can also be accessed through Microsoft 365 and Slack.
The system selects the best model for each task, currently drawing on Google's own Gemini models and Anthropic's Claude models, with additional models to be added later, Google said.
Users can create what Google describes as "coworker agents" — team members with their own email addresses and access limited to information they are explicitly granted. Industry-specific versions built for financial services and legal work are now in preview, with versions for government, healthcare, and retail slated to follow.
The launch comes after OpenAI introduced always-on agents called dots in September, designed to pursue user goals across applications autonomously. Meta released its own personal agent, Muse, earlier last month — a tool capable of shopping, booking travel, sending emails, and making payments on a user's behalf.
The confluence of announcements reflects an accelerating contest among the largest technology companies to sell autonomous AI into enterprise and consumer markets. For OpenAI specifically, Thursday's revenue clarification adds complexity to an already closely watched path toward a public market debut, with investors now recalibrating growth expectations against a valuation that remains among the highest ever assigned to a private technology company.
Sara Montes de Oca is the Editor in Chief of TechEchelon. Previously a correspondent and producer in Washington, D.C., covering business, finance, and politics.
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