The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed lower on Thursday (October 8), mainly because the British media Financial Times reported that OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, had annualized revenue of only about US$50 billion as of the end of September, clearly falling short of the US$70 billion previously estimated by the market; afterward, Bloomberg released a different account after hours, stating that OpenAI still expects its annualized revenue to reach or exceed US$70 billion by the end of this year.
Bloomberg published a report after hours on Thursday that differed from the Financial Times’ account. The outlet said that thanks to strong growth momentum in its enterprise business, OpenAI’s revenue outlook has not deteriorated, and the company expects its annualized revenue to smoothly reach or exceed US$70 billion by the end of this year.
The Financial Times had earlier claimed that OpenAI’s annualized revenue as of the end of September was about US$50 billion, far below the US$70 billion estimated by the market.
In addition, Bloomberg previously reported in September that OpenAI was at the time actively negotiating a new funding round of US$30 billion or more, and that before the injection of new funds in that round, the valuation it was seeking had already reached US$1.4 trillion.
AI giants such as OpenAI and Anthropic often treat annualized revenue as a key growth metric, but not all companies use the same method of measurement. For example, Bloomberg previously disclosed that Anthropic’s annualized revenue had reached US$65 billion as of the end of July, but that figure included sales from cloud partners, whereas OpenAI’s US$50 billion as of the end of September was actual net revenue without any inflation.
Market analysis holds that Bloomberg’s clarification of the discrepancy in how AI giants’ annualized revenue is calculated, along with its reiteration that the year-end US$70 billion target remains unchanged, came like a timely rain, expected to effectively calm investors’ panic when US stocks open on Friday (the 9th), providing a shot in the arm for the battered AI-related stocks and the technology sector, and playing a key role in stabilizing the market.
