Symbolic imageOpenAI revenue about $20bn below reported figure, unsettling AI stocks
OpenAI says its annualised revenue is about $50bn, not the roughly $70bn reported in September. AI-linked shares fell sharply on Thursday.
The Financial Times reported on Thursday, 8 October, that OpenAI had given investors a run rate of close to $50bn. OpenAI said reports of a $70bn run rate were not accurate. The gap stems from accounting: Anthropic books gross revenue from sales via cloud partners, while OpenAI counts only its own share, and investors had tried to make the two comparable. The Nasdaq 100 closed down 1.4%, with Oracle down 5.5%, Nvidia 2.9% and Micron 4.8%, before partly recovering on Friday. The FT says the episode renews calls for both firms to go public or formalise their reporting.
Fired safety researchers dispute dismissal
Researchers Mikita Balesni, Tomek Korbak and Jasmine Wang said on Thursday that OpenAI fired them last week for putting safety first. OpenAI says they breached trust and mishandled sensitive information, which they deny; Korbak says he was told it concerned his communication with the research group METR.
Funding talks continue
According to the Guardian, OpenAI is in early talks to raise $30bn at a valuation of about $1.4tn.