Leaked docs detail OpenAI's 2025 losses
Audited financials verified by the FT show OpenAI's operating loss hit about $21 billion in 2025 on $13 billion of revenue, with costs still outrunning growth.
Audited financial statements obtained by independent journalist Ed Zitron, and separately verified by the Financial Times, show OpenAI’s revenue grew from $3.7 billion in 2024 to $13.07 billion in 2025. Its costs grew faster. Research and development alone rose from $7.81 billion to $19.18 billion, more than the company’s total revenue, while the cost of running its models climbed from $2.65 billion to $7.5 billion. OpenAI’s loss from operations widened from $8.78 billion in 2024 to $20.92 billion in 2025. The headline net loss reached about $38.5 billion, though that figure includes a large one-time charge tied to its 2025 conversion to a for-profit structure.
The company says it aims to be profitable by 2030. In March it raised $122 billion at an $852 billion valuation, and it reports more than 900 million weekly ChatGPT users, of whom about 50 million pay.
Why this matters
The product you use is being sold below what it costs to run, and that gap is the thing to watch. Ars Technica notes OpenAI will have to rein in costs, and that enterprise customers are already balking at token-based pricing. You have seen the early moves: OpenAI shut its Sora video model in March and told staff to drop “side quests” and focus on coding and business users.
For a working operator, the lesson is not panic, it is planning. A vendor losing this much money will keep changing prices, retiring features, and narrowing what it supports. Keep your own exit ramp ready, weigh stability when you choose a tool, and remember the retirement of GPT-5.2 was the same story in smaller print.