OpenAI is facing increased financial scrutiny after a year filled with major deals and rumours of an upcoming public listing.
Newly leaked documents, shared by tech writer Ed Zitron, offer a clearer look at how much OpenAI has been earning and spending over the past two years.
According to the documents Zitron reviewed, Microsoft received four hundred ninety three point eight million dollars from OpenAI in revenue share payments in twenty twenty four. In the first three quarters of twenty twenty five, that amount jumped to eight hundred sixty five point eight million dollars.
OpenAI reportedly gives Microsoft twenty percent of its revenue as part of an earlier agreement that involved more than thirteen billion dollars in investment from Microsoft. Neither company has openly confirmed this percentage.
The situation becomes more complicated because Microsoft also shares income with OpenAI. A source told TechCrunch that Microsoft sends back around twenty percent of the money it earns from Bing and the Azure OpenAI Service. Bing uses OpenAI technology, while the Azure OpenAI platform sells access to OpenAI models for businesses and developers.
The source added that the leaked numbers represent Microsoft’s net revenue share, meaning the amount after Microsoft subtracts what it already paid OpenAI in Bing and Azure OpenAI royalties. Microsoft does not publicly reveal how much it earns from those services, which makes the true exchange difficult to measure.
Even so, the leaked information provides rare insight into what many people consider the most valuable private company in the world. It also gives an idea of how much the company is spending compared to how much it brings in.
If the twenty percent revenue share figure is used, OpenAI would have made at least two point five billion dollars in twenty twenty four and more than four point three billion dollars in just the first nine months of twenty twenty five. Other reports, however, say the actual number is much higher. The Information earlier estimated that OpenAI made around four billion dollars in twenty twenty four and around four point three billion dollars in the first half of twenty twenty five.
Sam Altman has also claimed that OpenAI’s revenue is significantly higher than the widely reported thirteen billion dollars a year and that the company is on track to end the year above twenty billion dollars in annualized revenue. He even suggested that OpenAI could reach one hundred billion dollars by twenty twenty seven.
Zitron’s analysis suggests that OpenAI may have spent roughly three point eight billion dollars on inference costs in twenty twenty four. Those costs grew to around eight point six five billion dollars in the first nine months of twenty twenty five. Inference refers to the computing power needed to run AI models once they are already trained.
OpenAI has long relied mainly on Microsoft Azure for compute power, though it also works with CoreWeave, Oracle, AWS, and Google Cloud. Earlier reports estimated the company’s total compute spending at five point six billion dollars in twenty twenty four and its cost of revenue at two point five billion dollars for the first half of twenty twenty five.
A source told TechCrunch that most training costs are paid through credits provided by Microsoft, but inference costs must be paid in cash. Training refers to building the model, while inference is the ongoing cost of generating outputs.
All of these figures suggest that OpenAI might be spending more on running its models than it earns from them, which continues to fuel concerns about a possible AI investment bubble. If the biggest name in AI is still losing money, it raises questions about the long-term sustainability of massive investments across the entire industry.
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OpenAI did not comment on the report, and Microsoft did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
