OpenAI reports $39 B loss in 2025 as spending spikes ahead of IPO

Leaked audit documents show OpenAI’s 2025 revenue reached about $13 billion while total spending surged to $34 billion, producing a headline net loss of $39 billion. Much of the loss stems from a $300 billion non‑cash accounting adjustment tied to the company’s prior structure; excluding that, the underlying cash loss was roughly $8 billion, with operating losses of $209 billion.

The company holds about $73 billion in cash, giving it roughly five years of runway at the current burn rate. OpenAI’s cash burn remains high – $3.7 billion in Q1 2026 alone – as it pours money into research, model training, and cloud compute, including over $100 billion paid to Microsoft for compute services.

Amid the financial pressure, OpenAI is weighing a shift from flat‑rate subscriptions to token‑based pricing, a move likened to “crack‑cocaine” pricing by critics. The pricing debate coincides with intensifying competition from Anthropic, which is also preparing an IPO. Meanwhile, Microsoft is expanding its AI model business in China, selling access to OpenAI’s models via Azure to firms such as ByteDance, Ant Group and Tencent, even as OpenAI itself stays out of the market.