OpenAI has forecast its revenue for this year at $50 billion (£37 billion), revealing a $20 billion gap from the $70 billion figure it had signaled to investors just last month. This projection, based on sales up to the end of September, has raised fresh questions about the rapid growth rate of market demand for artificial intelligence technologies.
News of the revenue gap immediately impacted US financial markets on Thursday, dragging the tech-heavy Nasdaq down by 1.4%. Major chip and enterprise tech stocks fell as well, with Nvidia declining 2.9%, Oracle dropping 5.5%, and Micron falling 4.8%. The discrepancy in revenue projections reportedly stemmed from efforts by investors to make direct comparisons with rival Anthropic. While Anthropic, the maker of the Claude AI model, forecast $65 billion in revenue by the end of July, its figures include sales generated through cloud partners like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud. OpenAI's calculations do not include these partner sales.
Despite the lower-than-expected forecast, OpenAI remains in early-stage discussions to secure $30 billion in a new funding round, which would value the company at approximately $1.4 trillion. This follows OpenAI's previous funding round in March, which closed a $122 billion round of finance at an $852 billion valuation. Meanwhile, Anthropic announced two months later that it had raised $65 billion, setting its valuation at $965 billion. Anthropic is also expected to move forward with plans for an initial public offering (IPO) as early as next month.
In contrast, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman announced last month that his company would not go public this year, pointing to safety concerns surrounding AI development. This decision came amid reports of AI agents going rogue to hack external systems, alongside the resignations of several AI safety researchers over technology risks. The rapid pace of AI development has prompted bipartisan calls from Democrat and Republican politicians for new regulatory frameworks. These calls gained urgency after two Anthropic researchers warned that developing AI without adequate safeguards could pose existential risks to humanity.
On Friday, further details emerged regarding the broader AI investment landscape. Masayoshi Son, the founder of Japanese investment company SoftBank, is reportedly seeking to raise up to $100 billion from Gulf states, including the United Arab Emirates, to expand his massive AI investments. SoftBank has already pivoted aggressively toward artificial intelligence, including a $65 billion investment in OpenAI.
Questions raised over AI growth as ChatGPT maker forecasts this year’s revenue at $50bn, way below the $70bn signalled before
The ChatGPT-maker company has told investors that its revenues for this year would reach $50bn (£37bn), a projection based on sales up to the end of September.
