OpenAI's reported Q3 revenue rose 50% to about $10 billion

OpenAI's third-quarter revenue rose about 50% to roughly $10 billion, The Information reported on Tuesday, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter; the company had told investors the figure.

The figure needs a clear label: reported, not filed. OpenAI remains private, does not publish financial results, and has not had the number independently confirmed by another outlet. The accounting basis for the quarter is also undisclosed, leaving the total outside direct comparison with an SEC-filed revenue line.

What drove the rebound?

The Information's account, as summarized by PANews, linked the increase to renewed demand for OpenAI's newer models and enterprise products after a slower stretch earlier in the year. It did not break out revenue by model, customer or contract, so the commercial mix behind the 50% increase remains only broadly described.

At The Wall Street Journal's Tech Live event last week, OpenAI President Greg Brockman said the first half of 2026 was “pretty rough” before a third-quarter rebound in which annualized revenue grew 70% and the enterprise business roughly doubled.

Reuters reported on Sept. 29, citing a source, that OpenAI's annualized recurring revenue was nearing $70 billion and that enterprise sales had more than doubled since July.

Those measures should not be blended. Brockman's 70% figure describes annualized revenue growth, while Reuters' nearly $70 billion describes an ARR level; neither figure is the reported $10 billion quarterly revenue total.

The direction of travel nevertheless matches the company's public narrative: a weak first half gave way to faster model and enterprise demand. The reporting offers no quarterly product or customer data, so the durability of that acceleration remains the central unanswered commercial question.

How does OpenAI compare with Anthropic and Microsoft?

Three revenue numbers sit beside one another, but they do different work:

• OpenAI: About $10 billion in third-quarter revenue, up roughly 50%, based on what the company told investors and reported by The Information; no other outlet has independently confirmed the total.
• Anthropic: $16.96 billion for the quarter ended Sept. 30, disclosed in an amended IPO S-1 filed with the SEC on the same day.
• Microsoft: $10 billion in revenue from commercial arrangements with OpenAI in the quarter ended Sept. 30, including revenue-sharing payments, disclosed by Microsoft in October.

Anthropic's total comes from an SEC filing, while OpenAI's total rests on a press report and an undisclosed accounting basis. The gap therefore signals reported scale, not a like-for-like revenue comparison.

Microsoft's figure sits on the other side of the transaction. It measures what Microsoft earned from its OpenAI arrangements, including revenue-sharing payments, not what OpenAI collected from customers. The two $10 billion totals therefore must not be treated as the same revenue pool.

The same-day Anthropic filing gives OpenAI's reported growth a filed competitor to measure against, but not a clean accounting comparison. Anthropic's $16.96 billion comes through the S-1 process; OpenAI's $10 billion remains a figure relayed from investors.

What do the financing and IPO comments establish?

Bloomberg and Reuters reported last week that OpenAI had raised $11 billion at a $1.25 trillion valuation in the first close of a new funding round. The valuation describes the private transaction, not an established public-market capitalization.

Brockman also said OpenAI could be ready for an IPO in 2027. That remains a management statement about readiness rather than a filed offering timetable, and it arrives alongside the $11 billion financing's first close.

The financing does not resolve the revenue caveats. It does put more capital behind OpenAI as the company tries to turn renewed model and enterprise interest into durable billings, with Anthropic's filed revenue and Microsoft's revenue-sharing economics setting the commercial context.

What comes next?

The next test for OpenAI is whether it can sustain the newer-model and enterprise demand behind its reported $10 billion quarter while Anthropic posts a $16.96 billion SEC-filed total and Microsoft remains tied to OpenAI's revenue through sharing payments.