Jim Cramer Says OpenAI Revenue Isn’t ‘Apples to Apples’ With Anthropic, Daniel Newman Calls Debate 'Hilarious' — $500 Billion Wiped Out
Key takeaways
- OpenAI’s revenue may be $20 billion lower than previously thought, a gap driven by accounting differences rather than sales decline.
- OpenAI revenue $50 billion (annualized)
- Previously cited revenue $70 billion
- $20 billion gap
What happened
The Financial Times reported that OpenAI’s annualized revenue was closer to $50 billion at the end of September, down from the previously cited $70 billion. The $20 billion gap is attributed to differences in how OpenAI and Anthropic count revenue, not a decline in sales. Jim Cramer and Futurum Group CEO Daniel Newman highlighted that the discrepancy stems from gross versus net revenue reporting and the revenue share taken by cloud partners Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet.
Why it matters
The revised revenue figure fuels uncertainty about the true scale of AI spending and the profitability of OpenAI’s business model. It also raises questions about how much of each AI dollar is retained by OpenAI after paying cloud partners, potentially impacting investor sentiment toward AI‑related stocks.
Short-term and longer-term
Short-term. In the next few days, Microsoft’s stock may continue to react to the OpenAI revenue uncertainty, potentially pulling lower as investors reassess AI spending.
Longer-term. Over the coming months, the debate over OpenAI’s revenue accounting could influence long‑term valuations of AI‑focused companies.