"Q2 was no slouch," CFO Sarah Friar told employees, highlighting that OpenAI's annualized recurring revenue in July outpaced the company's whole second quarter. Alongside board chair Bret Taylor, Friar credited the surge to the GPT-5.6 model series, the enterprise agent ChatGPT Work, and growing use of the Codex coding tool. Taylor noted that although OpenAI lagged in coding earlier this year, Codex’s rapid expansion is now winning over users who previously favored Anthropic's Claude Code, especially those facing high bills.
While OpenAI has not shared exact revenue numbers this time, past reports paint a picture of massive scale. The Information indicated annualized revenue topped $25 billion back in February, with Q1 burn rate at $3.7 billion offset by $5.7 billion in revenue. Despite missing internal revenue and user targets in April, the recent internal update reflects a strong rebound in demand for OpenAI’s tools.
OpenAI’s revenue momentum comes as major AI investors like Microsoft and Meta report solid quarterly earnings. Microsoft posted $90 billion in revenue for its fiscal Q4, up 18%, while Meta beat expectations with $60.8 billion, a 28% increase year-over-year. Alphabet’s Q2 revenue rose 24% to $119.8 billion. Apple and Amazon’s quarterly results are due soon. OpenAI, still private, raised $122 billion in March at a valuation of $852 billion and recently filed confidentially for an IPO.
These developments shows OpenAI’s growing influence in the AI economy amid fierce competition and shifting user preferences. The company's powerful combination of advanced models and enterprise tools appears to be fueling rapid revenue growth less than half a year into the year.
This material is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
