OpenAI Passes $10 Billion in a Quarter for the First Time as Losses Keep Growing

OpenAI has crossed a milestone no artificial intelligence company has reached before. In the third quarter of 2026, from July to September, the maker of ChatGPT brought in more than $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time, according to figures shared with investors and reported by Bloomberg. The number is up almost 50 percent from $6.7 billion in the second quarter, and it is nearly three times the level of a year ago. At the same time, the company's losses kept growing, with the adjusted operating loss widening to $10.9 billion in the quarter, a reminder that the race to build frontier AI remains extraordinarily expensive.

The figures were shared with investors on a call on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, led by chief financial officer Sarah Friar and president Greg Brockman. OpenAI declined to comment on the numbers, and the company has not published them itself, so they are reported figures, not audited results. Even with that caveat, the scale of the growth is striking, and it arrives in a week when the wider AI industry is under intense scrutiny, from Nvidia's leadership crisis to Anthropic's giant IPO. The annual revenue run rate has now reached $50 billion, per Bloomberg, a figure that puts OpenAI among the fastest-growing companies in the history of the technology industry.

What Happened in Brief

Direct answer: OpenAI's quarterly revenue crossed $10 billion for the first time in the third quarter of 2026, up almost 50 percent from $6.7 billion in the second quarter and nearly three times the level of a year ago. The annual revenue run rate reached $50 billion, per Bloomberg. The adjusted operating loss widened to $10.9 billion from $10.1 billion in the second quarter, but the adjusted operating margin improved from about minus 150 percent to about minus 109 percent. Enterprise revenue doubled quarter over quarter and now accounts for about half of total revenue.

The Numbers Behind the $10 Billion Quarter

The headline figure is $10 billion in quarterly revenue, but the details underneath it tell a fuller story about where OpenAI's growth is coming from. Revenue rose almost 50 percent in a single quarter, from $6.7 billion in the second quarter of 2026 to more than $10 billion in the third quarter. Compared with a year ago, revenue has nearly tripled, a pace of growth that is rare for a company of this size in any industry.

The annual revenue run rate, a measure that annualizes the most recent quarter's performance, has reached $50 billion, according to Bloomberg. That figure is a useful shorthand for the scale OpenAI has reached, though it is not the same as audited annual revenue, and it assumes the current pace holds for a full year. The numbers were reported by TechCrunch, citing Bloomberg, and by the Wall Street Journal, and they were shared with investors on the November 10 call led by Friar and Brockman.

The growth has been credited to several factors working together. TechCrunch credits tighter pricing, discounts that brought in new customers, improving models, and a sharper focus on enterprise products and AI agents, the automated systems that can carry out multi-step tasks for businesses. Together, those moves have turned OpenAI from a company known mainly for a consumer chatbot into a major supplier of AI tools to large organizations.

Losses Are Growing, but the Margin Is Improving

The other side of the story is the cost. OpenAI's adjusted operating loss widened to $10.9 billion in the third quarter, up from $10.1 billion in the second quarter. That is a loss of more than $10 billion in three months, driven by the enormous cost of training and running AI models, including the computing power, the data centers and the specialist staff required to build them.

Looked at another way, however, the picture is improving. The adjusted operating margin improved from about minus 150 percent in the second quarter to about minus 109 percent in the third quarter. In plain terms, OpenAI is still losing more money than it brings in, but it is losing less for every dollar of revenue than it was three months ago. That trend matters to investors, because it suggests the business can become more efficient as it grows, even while absolute losses continue to rise.

The tension between rapid revenue growth and heavy losses is the central question for OpenAI and for the AI industry as a whole. Building frontier models requires spending at a scale that few companies in history have attempted, and OpenAI is doing it while competing with well-funded rivals, including Anthropic and Google. For the latest industry context, see our full coverage of the AI sector.

Enterprise Is Now Half the Business

One of the most important shifts in the third quarter was the rise of OpenAI's enterprise business. Enterprise revenue doubled quarter over quarter, and it now accounts for about half of total revenue. That means large companies buying OpenAI's products for their employees and operations now generate roughly as much revenue as consumers using ChatGPT and other products directly.

The shift matters for two reasons. First, enterprise contracts tend to be larger, longer and more predictable than consumer subscriptions, which gives OpenAI a steadier base of income. Second, it shows that businesses are moving beyond experimenting with AI and are now paying serious money to put it into daily work, from customer service to coding to research. The focus on AI agents, systems that can plan and complete tasks with limited human supervision, is a central part of that enterprise push, and it is where OpenAI sees some of its largest growth opportunities.

The enterprise story also explains why the company has been investing so heavily in sales teams, partnerships and products built for business customers. As the consumer market matures, the competition for corporate budgets is where the largest AI companies now fight hardest.

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How OpenAI Compares With Anthropic

OpenAI's main rival, Anthropic, is also growing fast, and the comparison between the two companies is now a central story in the AI industry. Anthropic posted $17 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2026, with an $81 billion annualized run rate, figures that are larger than OpenAI's reported quarterly revenue. However, the two companies calculate annualized revenue differently, so the numbers are not directly comparable, and analysts caution against reading too much into a head-to-head comparison.

Anthropic's growth is also the backdrop to its planned IPO, which is expected to price on November 18, 2026, and begin trading on November 19 on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT. The offering covers 825 million Class A shares at $70 to $78, which would raise $57.75 billion to $64.35 billion and value Anthropic at a fully diluted $1.26 trillion to $1.41 trillion. OpenAI remains a private company, so its financials reach the public only through investor calls and reporting, while Anthropic is about to disclose far more detail as a public company. Our earlier report on Anthropic's IPO pricing and roadshow has the full details, and our report on Claude Fable 5.2 and Mythos 5.2 covers its latest model launch.

The rivalry between the two companies is also a rivalry between two different approaches to building AI. OpenAI has moved fastest in consumer products and enterprise agents, while Anthropic has built its reputation on safety research and on models that appeal to business customers who need reliability and careful handling of sensitive work. Both are spending billions to stay ahead, and both are now generating revenue at a scale that was hard to imagine even two years ago.

What It Means for the AI Industry

OpenAI passing $10 billion in a single quarter is a milestone for the whole AI industry, not just for one company. It shows that the demand for AI products is real, that customers are willing to pay for them at scale, and that the business of AI is no longer a promise about the future but a large and growing market in the present. The $50 billion annual run rate puts OpenAI in the same revenue league as some of the largest software companies in the world.

At the same time, the $10.9 billion quarterly loss is a reminder of how much the industry still depends on spending. Training and running frontier models requires data centers, chips and energy at enormous scale, and the companies that can afford that spending are few. Nvidia's crisis this week, with chief executive Jensen Huang resigning and the stock falling about 10.3 percent in premarket trading, shows how fragile the supply chain behind AI can be. OpenAI's own growth depends on that supply chain, and on the chips and data centers that power its models. Our report on Nvidia's sovereign AI partnership in Korea shows how deeply those relationships run.

For now, investors and customers will watch two things. The first is whether OpenAI can keep growing revenue at this pace while narrowing its losses further, as the margin improvement in the third quarter suggests it can. The second is whether the enterprise business keeps doubling, because that is the part of the company that now drives half of all revenue. If both trends hold, the $10 billion quarter will be remembered as the moment OpenAI became a major revenue company, not just a famous research lab.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much revenue did OpenAI make in Q3 2026?

OpenAI's quarterly revenue crossed $10 billion for the first time in the third quarter of 2026, from July to September. That is up almost 50 percent from $6.7 billion in the second quarter, and nearly three times the level of a year ago. The annual revenue run rate reached $50 billion, per Bloomberg.

Is OpenAI profitable?

No. OpenAI's adjusted operating loss widened to $10.9 billion in the third quarter of 2026, up from $10.1 billion in the second quarter. However, the adjusted operating margin improved from about minus 150 percent to about minus 109 percent, which means the company is losing less for every dollar of revenue than it was three months ago.

Are these OpenAI figures audited?

No. The figures were shared with investors on a call on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, led by CFO Sarah Friar and president Greg Brockman. OpenAI declined to comment, and the company has not published the numbers itself, so they are reported figures from Bloomberg and other outlets, not audited results.

How big is OpenAI's enterprise business?

Enterprise revenue doubled quarter over quarter in the third quarter of 2026 and now accounts for about half of OpenAI's total revenue. The growth reflects a sharper focus on enterprise products and AI agents for business customers.

How does OpenAI compare with Anthropic?

Rival Anthropic posted $17 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2026, with an $81 billion annualized run rate. The two companies calculate annualized revenue differently, so the figures are not directly comparable. Anthropic is also preparing an IPO, with pricing expected on November 18, 2026, and trading expected to begin on November 19 on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT.

What drove OpenAI's revenue growth?

TechCrunch credits tighter pricing, discounts that brought in new customers, improving models, and a sharper focus on enterprise products and AI agents. Together, those factors lifted quarterly revenue from $6.7 billion in the second quarter to more than $10 billion in the third quarter.

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