FT: OpenAI told investors its annualized revenue is near $50B, about $20B below last month's widely reported $70B; the gap is mostly an accounting mismatch with Anthropic

Why it matters

【Key points】

On Oct 8 (US time) the Financial Times, citing documents shared with investors, reported OpenAI's annualized revenue was "approaching $50 billion" at the end of September, about $20B below the near-$70B figure Axios and others reported in late September. Per the FT, Axios and TechCrunch, Anthropic counts full sales made through cloud partners such as AWS and Google Cloud, while OpenAI books only its share. The $70B figure was a gross-up by OpenAI's investors to compare with Anthropic: an adjusted $40B August base plus OpenAI's reported 70%+ growth. Bloomberg also put the run rate near $50B, and on Oct 9 reported OpenAI expects $70B or more by year-end, driven by enterprise. OpenAI has not commented publicly. X: about 2,600 posts in 24 hours, peaking above 400 an hour.

【Verifiable】

FT: https://www.ft.com/content/b66a9858-f8fb-46cb-b506-44bfe26fca2a

Axios: https://www.axios.com/2026/10/08/openai-50-billion-arr-anthropic-revenue-accounting

TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/08/openais-revenue-is-reportedly-20-billion-less-than-previously-projected/

All figures come from investor documents and sources; neither company publishes audited revenue.

【Our read】

1. This is an accounting clash, not a demand collapse, but September's "OpenAI catches Anthropic" comparison was never like for like.

2. A self-reported private metric moved expectations for the whole AI compute chain. Annualized revenue is one month times twelve, not a financial statement; read combined figures such as the one in e/739 with the same caution.

3. Audited numbers will come with an IPO filing, now pushed to 2027. Until then, ask whose method and whether cloud resale is included.