OpenAI Revenue Hits $10 Billion a Quarter, Loss Grows to $10.9B

OpenAI revenue reached about $10 billion in the third quarter of 2026, up nearly 50% from the second quarter, according to financial documents viewed by the Wall Street Journal and reported on Tuesday, November 10. It is the first time the ChatGPT maker has crossed $10 billion in a single quarter. Its operating loss was larger than its sales: $10.9 billion, up from $10.1 billion in the prior quarter.

OpenAI is private and does not publish results, so these numbers, shared with investors and described by Euronews and other outlets citing the Journal, are the best available view of the company at the center of the AI spending boom. They show demand accelerating and costs rising with it.

$10B

Third-quarter revenue, up nearly 50% on the quarter

$10.9B

Operating loss, up from $10.1 billion

2x

Enterprise revenue growth in three months

1.2B

Weekly active ChatGPT users

Growth sped up, led by business customers

The jump of nearly 50% compares with growth of 18% in the second quarter, according to the Journal's figures as cited by Yahoo Finance. Chief financial officer Sarah Friar told CNBC's Deirdre Bosa on Tuesday where it came from.

Revenue is now split about evenly between enterprise and consumer customers, Friar said. Consumer sales grew about 20% on the quarter, paid subscriptions passed 100 million, and ChatGPT has 1.2 billion weekly active users, Yahoo Finance reported. Friar put the company's annual revenue run rate at roughly $50 billion. A run rate annualizes a recent period, so it is not the same as revenue already earned.

The loss is still bigger than the revenue

The operating loss of $10.9 billion means OpenAI lost more from operations than it brought in from customers. The trend in the ratio is better than the trend in dollars. OpenAI told investors its adjusted operating margin improved to negative 109% from negative 150% in the previous quarter, according to Euronews. Losses grew about 8% while revenue grew nearly 50%.

That is the central question for the AI trade in one line. If revenue keeps compounding faster than costs, the margin keeps closing. If growth slows before it closes, the company needs outside capital for longer. OpenAI is finishing a funding round that values it at $1.25 trillion, with about $11 billion already in, after the round's target was cut.

The Anthropic comparison

The numbers landed as rival Anthropic markets its initial public offering at $70 to $78 a share, which could value it at around $1.4 trillion. Anthropic's revenue was $33.2 billion in the nine months through September 30 and $16.3 billion in the first six months, Yahoo Finance reported, citing its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That implies about $17 billion in the third quarter. Storyboard18 reported that Anthropic's operating loss for the quarter was $567 million.

The two are not directly comparable. Anthropic does not have a consumer business, Yahoo Finance noted, while about half of OpenAI's revenue comes from consumers. Our analysis of the Anthropic IPO filing covers its compute commitments, which are the cost side of the same story.

What the AI Bubble Index says

The AI Bubble Index read 61.9 after Tuesday's close, in its Normal band, compared with 63.3 a week earlier. Sentiment and attention is the hottest of its five families at 95.5. The demand gap is the coolest at 40.5. Private company figures like OpenAI's do not feed the index directly. The methodology explains what does.

What the quarter adds is evidence on both sides of the bubble debate: real revenue growing quickly, and losses that still depend on investors' willingness to fund them. Our guide to what the AI bubble is explains why that gap between spending and revenue is the thing to track.