OpenAI's annual recurring revenue surges past $10 billion
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT and the generative AI revolution, has crossed US$10 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR).
CNBC reported, quoting an OpenAI source but without naming the person, that the $10 billion ARR is almost double that of US$5.5 billion ARR in December last year, and more than six times of US$1.6 billion from 18 months ago.
The US$10 billion figure does not include licensing revenue from Microsoft and large one-time deals, and is based only on the sales of OpenAI's consumer products, business products and its application programming interface.
The journey to the milestone has taken slightly more than two years since the company launched ChatGPT Plus, its first paying product and the revenue target of US$12.7 billion in 2025, which it had shared with investors earlier, is well within reach. In 2024, OpenAI reported a loss of approximately US$5 billion.
The source also told CNBC that OpenAI is on track to reach its reported target of US$125 billion in revenue by 2029.
Much of the growth this year came from an upgrade to ChatGPT-4, which allowed users to create comic images, such as those mimicking Japanese cartoon series like Studio Ghibli.
OpenAI had 500 million weekly active users as of the end of March this year. It had also said at the time that it would raise up to US$40 billion in a new funding round led by SoftBank Group, at a $300 billion valuation, making it one of the most valuable privately held companies after Elon Musk's SpaceX and China's ByteDance, the owners of TikTok.
Experts feel that OpenAI's ARR is set to explode following their recent acquisition of io, the company formed by the former Apple head of design Jony Ive, as they plan new consumer products that would not bind people to traditional screens. The announcement to enter the hardware space was made last month.
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