The AI giant OpenAI's latest forecast shows that, with a strong pull from its enterprise business, the company expects annualized revenue to reach or exceed 700 hundred million US dollars (US$70 billion) by the end of 2026. Earlier, word had circulated in the market that its annualized revenue as of the end of month 9 (September) was only 500 hundred million US dollars (US$50 billion), which at one point triggered investor concerns about returns on AI and dragged down the US tech sector, but the latest figures quickly restored market confidence.
Dual Challenges of Capital and Profitability
Despite rapid revenue expansion, OpenAI still faces enormous cash burn pressure, with cumulative cash consumption expected to reach 280 billion USD by 2030. The company is currently raising a new funding round at a valuation of 1.4 trillion USD and has made clear it will not conduct an initial public offering in 2026, making it highly dependent on external financing to sustain its massive computing expenditures.
Industry Competition Continues to Intensify
Meanwhile, competitor Anthropic is also rising rapidly in the enterprise market, particularly posing direct competition to OpenAI in the code generation field. As the commercialization of AI enters deeper waters, whether these companies can maintain rapid revenue growth and achieve profitability under sustained heavy investment will become the core metric for the market to assess the valuations of these leading AI companies.