---
title: "People familiar say OpenAI expects $70 billion in annualized revenue by year-end"
url: "https://etf.net/news/people-familiar-say-openai-expects-70-billion-in-annualized-revenue-by-year-end-2026-10-09"
published_at: "2026-10-09T06:13:38.332Z"
updated_at: "2026-10-09T06:13:38.332Z"
byline: "ETF.net Research"
---

# People familiar say OpenAI expects $70 billion in annualized revenue by year-end

People familiar with OpenAI's fundraising told Bloomberg late Thursday, October 8, that the company expects at least $70 billion in annualized revenue by the end of 2026, from a September pace of roughly $50 billion.

By ETF.net Research. Published Oct 9, 2026.

OpenAI expects annualized revenue of at least **$70 billion** by the end of the year, people familiar with the figures told Bloomberg late Thursday, October 8. September's pace was roughly $50 billion. OpenAI has not confirmed either number.

A figure near $70 billion was already circulating in late September as the pace then. The Financial Times said it came from counting OpenAI the way rival Anthropic does, including sales through cloud partners such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. OpenAI's September figure leaves out the full partner sale.

That comparison sat about $20 billion above the September pace. Bloomberg's account of the year-end target does not say whether the new $70 billion includes those partner sales.

The figures were shared in talks to raise $30 billion or more, at a valuation of $1.4 trillion that does not include the new money. The people familiar said the growth expected by year-end comes largely from sales to companies. The talks are still open, and the terms can change.

Annualized revenue takes a short run of sales and stretches it to a year. It is a pace, not cash already collected.

The accounts do not agree on who produced the higher figure.

The Financial Times, citing a person with knowledge of the matter, said OpenAI's own investors had tried to produce a direct comparison with Anthropic. Reuters reported that OpenAI itself had told investors, at a separate event, that September's pace was approaching $70 billion. Axios said the higher figure was drawn up from investor interest in a number that could be set next to Anthropic's.

Both companies follow GAAP, the standard US accounting rules, and they still record a partner sale differently. If a customer pays $100 through a cloud provider, Anthropic can record the full $100 as revenue and list the provider's cut as an expense, Francine McKenna, an accounting professor and author of the newsletter The Dig, told Axios. OpenAI records only its share of certain partner sales.

## Stocks sold off on the September figure

Thursday's regular session had already closed before the year-end figure was out. CNBC and CNN reported that tech stocks fell after the September revenue figure came in below what had been reported last month.

QQQ, the fund that holds the Nasdaq-100, fell 1.3%. SMH, the fund of semiconductor companies, fell 2.8%.

Nvidia is the largest holding in SMH, and the fund also holds AMD and Broadcom. Each has announced a computing deal with OpenAI.

Chart: **Nvidia** is SMH's largest holding by a wide margin

Oracle fell 5.6%. Its reported agreement to sell OpenAI $300 billion of computing power runs for five years and starts in 2027.

Chart: **Oracle** led Thursday's declines

Daniel Newman, chief executive of The Futurum Group, wrote that "the whole OpenAI drama today was people not knowing the difference between gross and net revenue."

Bloomberg's markets wrap said stock futures rose on the year-end forecast. Nasdaq-100 futures were up 0.6% as of 1:41 a.m. Eastern on Friday.

The year-end figure is a step up from September only if it leaves out sales through cloud partners. Bloomberg did not say whether it does. That is the number in the talks to raise $30 billion.

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