OpenAI’s second-quarter revenue growth slowed sharply as Anthropic surged past its larger rival, leaving investors wondering whether ChatGPT’s extraordinary expansion is beginning to lose steam.
According to the Wall Street Journal, OpenAI generated $6.7 billion in revenue during the three months ending in June, up 18 per cent from $5.7 billion in the first quarter. For most companies, that would be cause for champagne. OpenAI has unfortunately trained investors to expect financial sorcery.
Anthropic more than doubled its quarterly revenue to $11.6 billion, overtaking OpenAI for the first time. It also reported a small adjusted operating profit, aided by improved computing efficiency.
OpenAI managed the less glamorous trick of making considerably more money while losing even more of it. Its operating loss, including stock-based compensation, widened from $9.3 billion in the first quarter to $12.3 billion in the second.
The comparison is especially uncomfortable because Anthropic has benefited from Claude Code’s success, while ChatGPT’s growth has slowed. OpenAI told investors that growth picked up again during the third quarter following the release of new models in July.
The company has also launched a “super app” that combines ChatGPT, Codex, and web browsing, while co-founder Greg Brockman has taken a more active role in product and business operations as OpenAI tries to get growth moving again.
That effort comes amid considerable management churn. Chief revenue officer Denise Dresser recently departed after less than a year, following the exits of former chief operating officer Brad Lightcap and Fidji Simo.
OpenAI’s larger problem is that its enormous computing commitments were based on expectations that annual revenue would eventually reach hundreds of billions of dollars. Nvidia, Oracle and other suppliers therefore have rather more riding on OpenAI’s growth projections than they might prefer.
The company subsidises hundreds of millions of free ChatGPT users while corporate customers become more cautious about AI spending and experiment with cheaper Chinese models. OpenAI has responded by cutting prices on some models, which is unlikely to make the accountants dance.
OpenAI needs its third-quarter acceleration to continue. Otherwise, the former runaway leader of the AI market may discover that being first to become enormous does not guarantee remaining first once everyone else learns how to play the game.
