The AI developer recorded a steep increase in its quarterly deficit when incorporating costs associated with employee equity awards. Including those expenses, OpenAI’s operating loss for the third quarter ended in September was approximately $13.5 billion, while its rival Anthropic reported an operating loss of $567 million for the same period.
OpenAI’s revenue grew nearly 50% from the second quarter to reach $10 billion, bolstered by enterprise adoption and demand for its Astra and GPT 5.6 models. While the firm’s adjusted operating margin improved to -109% from -150% in the previous quarter, its overall operating losses remained higher than its total sales. For comparison, Anthropic’s third-quarter revenue was nearly $17 billion, as the company prepares for an initial public offering.
