Per FT, OpenAI's run rate sits at $50B, below Anthropic's

According to the Financial Times, the $70 billion annualized revenue figure attached to OpenAI was never a measurement. Investors built it by adding a reported 70% growth figure to their own estimate. OpenAI's annualized revenue actually topped out at roughly $50 billion as of September, which puts it behind Anthropic's $65 billion.

At a glance

• Investors first tried to work out whether OpenAI's sales had reached $40 billion in August, then added the 70% growth OpenAI reported to that estimate and landed on $70 billion.
• Annualized revenue takes one snapshot period and stretches it across a year, OpenAI and Anthropic calculate it differently, and the investors who cited $70 billion got there by comparing the two.
• Neither report explains how the two methods actually differ, and this comes just as OpenAI's IPO is widely expected in early 2027 and Anthropic's reportedly lands sooner.

If you haven't been following the run-rate race, OpenAI's numbers have climbed in public, step by step. As of March 2026, OpenAI told investors and partners it was making about $2 billion a month, or roughly $25 billion annualized. According to a LuminixAI fact sheet, August 2026 run-rate was reported at about $40 billion. The same sheet says the roughly $70 billion end-of-Q3 figure, described as up more than 70% in the quarter, came via Axios and Reuters on Sep 29, 2026, from a source familiar with the matter.

The $70 billion figure came from a $40 billion estimate plus a 70% growth claim

Yahoo Finance, summarizing the FT report, puts the swing down to investor miscalculation. First, investors tried to work out whether OpenAI's sales had reached $40 billion in August. Later, OpenAI told them revenue had grown 70%. They added that growth to the original $40 billion estimate and landed on $70 billion.

The comparison with Anthropic was part of how the number was built. Per the FT, the investors who first cited $70 billion reached it by comparing OpenAI's revenue with Anthropic's, even though the two companies don't calculate annualized revenue the same way. The corrected figure, roughly $50 billion as of September, is $20 billion lower than the estimate that had been circulating.

At $50 billion, OpenAI's run-rate falls below Anthropic's $65 billion

The correction changes the order of the two labs. At $50 billion, OpenAI's annualized revenue falls below Anthropic's $65 billion in annualized sales, according to Yahoo Finance's account of the FT story. The two companies are fighting over enterprise customers, and both sell coding agents and general-purpose AI agents.

OpenAI launched new products for those buyers just last week. At its annual developers conference, it debuted Dots, AI agents for enterprise workers, and its latest model, GPT-6.1 Sol. According to the LuminixAI fact sheet, OpenAI's enterprise revenue passed its consumer revenue for the first time in July 2026, then more than doubled between July and September.

OpenAI's IPO is expected in early 2027, Anthropic's reportedly before Thanksgiving

Yahoo Finance reports that OpenAI is widely expected to start its initial public offering sometime in early 2027. Anthropic is rumored to go public before Thanksgiving, and its public S-1 prospectus is expected any day now.

The LuminixAI fact sheet adds some background. It says OpenAI reportedly submitted a confidential S-1 around June 8, 2026, and that Sam Altman told Fortune in mid-September that 2026 would be an ill-advised moment to list, so the IPO moved to 2027. The same sheet says OpenAI was reportedly seeking at least $30 billion at about $1.4 trillion pre-money as a bridge round, with talks still preliminary.

A run-rate multiplies one month by 12, so the month you pick decides the answer

Annualized revenue, also called run-rate, takes revenue from one snapshot period and projects it across a full year. Macro Markets defines it as current monthly revenue times 12. It measures speed, not a promise of what the year will bring. The common mistake, the same source says, is calling it revenue before a company has actually spent a full year at that pace.

Think of a speedometer. A reading of 120 km/h tells you how fast you are going right now, not how far you will drive today. Measure over a different window and you get a different speed. Macro Markets also notes that OpenAI is private and files no public 10-K, so its figures come from what it chooses to share with investors and from press reports.

The weak point is that no one has published the two definitions. Neither report explains how OpenAI's method differs from Anthropic's, and the LuminixAI sheet says OpenAI's recognized Q3 revenue has not been reported. In our view, a $20 billion error that came from adding a growth percentage to an unconfirmed estimate shows how little a run-rate means without its formula. The $50 billion figure likely rests on the same investor-side reporting.

What Anthropic's S-1 could settle

According to Yahoo Finance, Anthropic's public S-1 is expected any day now. It would be the first public filing from either lab, and so the first chance to check the $65 billion figure against numbers the company has to stand behind. OpenAI's figures will keep coming from investor briefings and press reports until its own IPO, widely expected in early 2027. No filing date has been given.