Leaked Document Reveals OpenAI Revenue and Expenses

The report states that in 2024, OpenAI shared $493.8 million in revenue with Microsoft, which rose to $865.8 million in the first three quarters of 2025. OpenAI shares 20% of its revenue with Microsoft as part of a $13 billion investment agreement. Microsoft also shares revenue with OpenAI, returning 20% of income from Bing and Azure OpenAI services.

Based on this, OpenAI’s total revenue in 2024 was at least $2.5 billion, and $4.33 billion in the first three quarters of 2025. Previous reports estimated 2024 revenue at $4 billion and early 2025 at $4.3 billion.

CEO Sam Altman has projected annual revenue exceeding $13 billion, with 2025 expected to surpass $20 billion, and potentially reaching $100 billion by 2027.

According to Zitron, OpenAI spent approximately $3.8 billion on inference in 2024, rising to $8.65 billion in the first nine months of 2025. Inference is the compute required to run trained AI models. OpenAI primarily relies on Microsoft Azure for compute but also has agreements with CoreWeave, Oracle, AWS, and Google Cloud.

Training costs are mostly non-cash, using Microsoft credits, but inference costs are largely cash-based. The data suggest inference expenses may exceed revenue, raising questions about AI investment valuations. OpenAI and Microsoft did not respond to TechCrunch comments.