OpenAI Hits $10 Billion in Quarterly Revenue for the First Time, but Its Operating Loss Hits $10.9 Billion

AI
Written by Methodical Millions
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The ChatGPT maker finally crossed the $10 billion mark in a single quarter. It also lost more than that running the business, and the timing, one week before Anthropic's IPO, puts both sets of numbers under a microscope.

By Methodical Jon | Nov 11, 2026

OpenAI told investors on Tuesday, November 10th 2026, that its third-quarter revenue rose about 50% from the prior quarter to roughly $10 billion USD, the first time it has reached that level in a single quarter, according to Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, as reported by Reuters. The catch: its adjusted operating loss widened to $10.9 billion USD, up from $10.1 billion USD in the second quarter.

OpenAI is still private, so these numbers come from investor documents and people familiar with them, not a public filing. OpenAI declined to comment to Bloomberg and did not immediately respond to Reuters.

What happened

Here's what was reported from Tuesday's investor call, which Quartz notes included President Greg Brockman and CFO Sarah Friar:

  • Revenue of about $10 billion USD for the three months ended in September, up roughly 50% from the second quarter and nearly three times the year-earlier level, per Bloomberg. The WSJ documents put third-quarter 2025 revenue at $3.9 billion USD, Computing and Israel Hayom reported.
  • A sharp reacceleration. Second-quarter revenue had grown only 18% over the first, the WSJ previously reported.
  • An adjusted operating loss of $10.9 billion USD, versus $10.1 billion USD in the second quarter.
  • A better margin, though still deep in the red. The adjusted operating margin improved to minus 109% from minus 150%, both outlets reported.
  • Annualized revenue of roughly $50 billion USD at the end of September, according to Bloomberg.
  • About 100 million paying ChatGPT users, or 8.5% of weekly active users, a slightly higher share than the prior quarter, per the WSJ reporting.

One important footnote: OpenAI's adjusted figures exclude stock-based compensation, which rose to $2.6 billion USD in the third quarter, according to a person familiar with the matter cited in the WSJ reporting.

Context: the race with Anthropic

These numbers land one week before the biggest AI listing yet. Anthropic, the maker of Claude, reported about $17 billion USD of third-quarter revenue and a $567 million USD operating loss in its amended IPO filing, which we broke down here. Its shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq on November 19th, per Proactive Investors, which also cited Bloomberg reporting that orders are several times larger than the shares on offer.

The comparison isn't apples to apples. Anthropic's operating loss includes stock-based compensation, while OpenAI's adjusted figure leaves it out, as both Computing and Israel Hayom point out. Even so, OpenAI is still well behind on revenue and far behind on efficiency.

What changed for OpenAI is momentum. Speaking at the WSJ Tech conference earlier this month, Brockman said the first two quarters were rough, but the third brought an "incredible revenue inflection," and he pointed to a new partnership with JPMorgan Chase, per a transcript of the interview and the WSJ reporting. In that interview, he said enterprise revenue had gone from roughly 30% of the mix to a majority. OpenAI has also cut prices on its newest models to win business customers and hired Dali Rajic as chief revenue officer to lead that push, the WSJ reported.

Why it matters

OpenAI recently closed an initial $11 billion USD piece of a funding round valuing it at $1.25 trillion USD, and it plans to go public next year, per Bloomberg via Quartz. The WSJ reporting says that round raised less than half of its $30 billion USD target, and the company is still looking for backers.

That's the tension. Investors will pay up for growth, but at some point they want a path to profit. Today, a week after AI stocks were hammered on bubble fears, the market is rewarding companies that show both. CoreWeave jumped about 20% after its own results this morning, a story we covered earlier today.

OpenAI's margin moved in the right direction by 41 percentage points in one quarter. If it keeps that pace, the losses start to shrink in absolute dollars, not just as a percentage. If it doesn't, the 2027 IPO will be a much harder sell than Anthropic's.

What to watch next

  • Anthropic's debut on November 19th. A strong first day sets the bar, and the valuation, that OpenAI will be measured against.
  • Whether the operating loss actually falls. A better margin with a bigger loss isn't a turnaround yet.
  • Ads and enterprise. OpenAI launched ads in ChatGPT earlier this year and expects them to help margins, but it hasn't shared figures for that business.

The money lesson

1. Revenue and profit are different scoreboards. Reaching $10 billion in a quarter is impressive. Spending about $21 billion to get there, on these adjusted numbers, is the part that decides how long the party lasts.

2. Read the adjustments. "Adjusted" can leave out real costs. Here, $2.6 billion of stock compensation sits outside the headline loss. Whenever a company hands you its own version of profit, ask what was left out.

3. Momentum is a story, margins are proof. The jump from 18% to 50% growth is a great narrative. The margin trend is what tells you whether the model works.

4. Diversify where the money comes from. OpenAI is leaning on consumer subscriptions, enterprise deals and now ads. More streams mean one slowdown doesn't sink the whole business. The same goes for your own income.

That last idea is the heart of Episode 35 - Recurring Revenue, where Methodical Jon and Kal talk about building more than one income stream and measuring how certain each one really is, the same question investors are now asking about OpenAI's revenue.

At the time of writing (12:15 PM ET, Nov 11, 2026), OpenAI has not publicly confirmed the figures, which come from investor documents reported by Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal. This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice.

Sources:

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This article may be AI-assisted and is subject to errors and omissions.

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