OpenAI crossed $25 billion in annualised revenue at the end of February 2026, according to a report by The Information citing a person familiar with the figure. The milestone was reached in roughly 39 months from near-zero revenue in late 2022 – faster than Google, Salesforce, or Facebook ever managed.
The Numbers
The $25 billion figure represents a 17% increase from the $21.4 billion OpenAI was generating at the end of 2025, and a 4x increase from approximately $6 billion at the end of 2024. ChatGPT now serves more than 900 million weekly active users. Paying business customers surpassed 9 million as of February 2026, up from 5 million six months earlier. Enterprise contracts account for $10 billion of the total annualised revenue figure.
What Is Driving Growth
The shift from consumer subscriptions to enterprise contracts is the primary engine. OpenAI has partnered with four of the world’s largest consulting firms to move corporate clients from limited pilot programmes to full-scale AI deployments. That hands-on approach is accelerating deals that would otherwise stall at the trial stage.
Anthropic Closing In
Anthropic, which makes the Claude family of models, is approaching $19 billion in annualised revenue – a gap of approximately $6 billion that has narrowed considerably over the past year. Anthropic’s revenue has been growing at roughly 10x per year against OpenAI’s 3.4x. Epoch AI has projected that at current trajectories, Anthropic could surpass OpenAI in annualised revenue by mid-2026.
The IPO
OpenAI closed a $122 billion funding round in March 2026 at a post-money valuation of $852 billion – the largest private technology financing in history. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are in early underwriting discussions for a public listing expected in the second half of 2026 or 2027. The company is targeting a valuation of up to $1 trillion at IPO, which would make it the largest public offering in stock market history. OpenAI’s own internal projections show the company will not be profitable until 2030.
What It Means
For users, the consequences of a public listing are already visible. Advertising appeared for free-tier ChatGPT users in January 2026. Premium subscription tiers are expanding. The pressure of quarterly earnings reporting on a company that is simultaneously spending at the scale of a national infrastructure programme will be one of the more consequential corporate stories of the decade.
John Moore is the editor of fastai.news, an independent publication covering developments in artificial intelligence.
He founded fastai.news in April 2026 to apply the same rigorous, neutral reporting standards he established at Powerboat News – his international publication – to the fast-moving world of AI.
With no filler and no opinion, fastai.news reports what is happening in AI models, research, business and tools, and leaves readers to draw their own conclusions.
John is based in Buckinghamshire, England.