Sam Altman says OpenAI revenue is ‘well above’ $13 billion and could reach $100 billion by 2027
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was extremely optimistic about the startup’s revenue forecast and indicated that he would welcome the opportunity to take on its enemies.
In an episode of Pod Bg2 ” which was released Friday, host Brad Gerstner, who is also the founder of Altimeter Capital, asked how the company could make financial commitments totaling $1.4 trillion when its annual revenue would be $13 billion.
“We generate a lot more revenue than that,” Altman responded.
OpenAI has announced massive AI infrastructure deals with companies like Nvidia, Broadcom and Oracle in recent weeks. Indeed, other so-called AI hyperscalers like Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor, collectively total hundreds of billions of dollars per year in capital spending.
As OpenAI continues to raise tens of billions of dollars from investors and generate billions more in revenue, Altman also warned that losses will persist.
And Microsoft’s latest quarterly results included a $4 billion charge, implying that OpenAI lost $12 billion last quarter. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But on the Pod Bg2Altman quickly followed his comment about OpenAI’s revenue by forcefully pushing back against those who doubt his company.
“We expect strong revenue growth. Revenue is growing strongly,” he said. “We’re betting that it’s going to continue to grow and that not only will ChatGPT continue to grow, but that we can become one of the most important AI clouds, that our consumer devices business will be a significant and important thing, that AI can automate science. [and] will create enormous value.
Altman added that one of the few cases where being a publicly traded company would be attractive is where short sellers have the opportunity to lose big.
“I would love to tell them they could just sell the stock short, and I would love to see them get burned because of it,” he said.
Still, Altman acknowledged that OpenAI is taking a risk and could stumble, noting that if it doesn’t get enough computing capacity, revenue could be lower than expected.
But Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who also appeared on the podcast, said OpenAI has surpassed every business plan he’s seen.
“Everyone talks about all the success and usage and everything else,” he said. “But even I would say the business execution has been nothing short of incredible.”
Later in the conversation, Altman hinted at even more explosive revenue growth over the next few years.
Last year, sources said The New York Times that OpenAI predicted revenues would reach $100 billion by 2029.
While talking about OpenAI’s potential to go public in the coming years, Bg2 host Gerstner floated revenue estimates exceeding $100 billion annually in 2028 or 2029.
“What about ’27?” Altman intervened.
