OpenAI has told investors its annualized revenue is approaching $50 billion, roughly $20 billion less than a figure reported about a week ago, according to the Financial Times, TechCrunch reported Thursday. Shares of AI infrastructure suppliers fell after the report, with Oracle and Intel each down about 6%.

What Happened

The FT said OpenAI's current run rate is close to $50 billion. On Sept. 29, Axios had reported a figure of about $70 billion. TechCrunch said the higher number grew out of attempts by OpenAI's own investors to line the company up against Anthropic, which has reported an annualized run rate of about $65 billion.

The two companies do not book revenue the same way. Anthropic counts sales made through cloud partners, while OpenAI leaves them out, so the totals cannot be compared directly. CNN Business, in a story carried by KESQ, cited a source who said the $70 billion figure did not come from OpenAI and probably resulted from setting OpenAI's net revenue against Anthropic's gross revenue, which includes cloud-provider sales.

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TechCrunch said it had asked OpenAI for comment. The company has not publicly explained the difference between the two figures.

Market Reaction

The report hit companies whose growth depends on OpenAI's spending. CNN Business said Oracle and Intel were each down about 6% and Nvidia about 3%, while the Nasdaq Composite was off 1.4% and on pace for its worst day since July.

MarketScreener listed Oracle down 5.9% at $136.50, Broadcom down 4.5%, Micron down 4.3%, AMD and TSMC each down 3.3% and Microsoft down 1.2%. Electronics manufacturer Celestica fell 5.9%. The outlet said the selloff hit chip suppliers to OpenAI and companies working with it on custom processors.

Why It Matters

Run-rate revenue has become the main public scorecard in the race between OpenAI and Anthropic, and both companies are moving toward public listings. CNN Business said Anthropic is targeting a valuation of $2 trillion in its offering. A $20 billion gap in how OpenAI's business is described also reaches suppliers whose order books rest on the company's data center plans, as Thursday's trading showed.

The swing in Oracle shares reflects how closely that company's outlook is tied to OpenAI. Chipmakers including Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom have also lined up multiyear supply arrangements with the ChatGPT maker.

Context

OpenAI raised $122 billion in a funding round in March. Leaked financials published earlier this year showed about $13 billion of revenue in 2025 against much larger spending. TechCrunch said an OpenAI initial public offering that had been discussed for 2026 is now expected in early 2027.

A run rate takes recent revenue and projects it over a full year, so it can move quickly and depends on which sales a company chooses to include. That makes the definitions behind each company's figure as important as the headline number.

What to Watch

The next step is whether OpenAI issues its own figure or clarifies how it counts revenue. Investors will also look for any change in spending plans from Oracle and other suppliers whose backlogs depend on OpenAI, and for how the gap is handled as both labs prepare offering documents.