US artificial intelligence developer OpenAI has reversed its slump, lifting quarterly revenue by nearly 50% to more than $10 billion while narrowing its operating losses. The quarterly figure exceeded the $10 billion mark for the first time in the company's history on strong demand for its latest AI models, infohub.kz reports.
Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, reported that if confirmed, the result would represent growth of almost 50% from the second quarter of 2026, when sales totaled $6.7 billion. The pace of the business's growth has picked up markedly: growth between the first and second quarters was estimated at about 18%.
The developer's financial position also improved as its losses shrank: the company's adjusted operating margin improved from minus 150% in the second quarter to minus 109% in the third. OpenAI, which pioneered the commercialization of neural networks, had previously trailed its main rival Anthropic, which seized the lead in the corporate segment and reported third-quarter revenue of $17 billion. Although OpenAI's audience exceeds one billion people, a significant share of it consists of users on free versions or basic tiers.
The company tackled its slowing growth with a pricing overhaul, a discount system, improvements to its neural networks and a shift in focus toward enterprise products and AI agents built to handle complex tasks. According to Bloomberg, OpenAI's annualized revenue run rate (ARR) has reached $50 billion. Rival Anthropic, which is preparing for an IPO at a valuation of $1.4 trillion, said the day before that its annual figure had grown by $10 billion in a month, to $81 billion at the end of October.
Both companies also face pressure from Meta (designated extremist and banned in Russia), Amazon, Microsoft, Google and accessible open-source Chinese models.