Leaked documents reveal OpenAI's financial status in 2025: revenue reaches $13 billion, net loss exceeds $38.5 billion

According to financial audit documents disclosed by technology critic Ed Zitron and verified by the Financial Times, OpenAI achieved revenue of $13.07 billion in 2025, but total costs and expenses reached $34 billion, resulting in an operating loss of $20.92 billion for the year. Due to OpenAI's structural shift to a for-profit entity that year, it incurred a loss of up to $41.55 billion from the fair value change of convertible equity and warrants. After accounting for interest and other factors and excluding non-controlling interest gains and losses, the final net loss attributable to OpenAI for 2025 amounted to $38.53 billion.

Comparative data in the documents indicate that OpenAI's losses are showing a dramatic year-on-year increase. Its revenue in 2024 was $3.7 billion, total costs were $12.48 billion, operating loss was $8.78 billion, and the final net loss attributable to the company was $5.09 billion. By 2025, its core expenses saw R&D costs surge to $19.18 billion, revenue costs were $7.5 billion, and sales and marketing expenses were $5.73 billion. By the end of 2025, OpenAI had slightly over $50 billion in assets, nearly half of which was cash reserves.

Additionally, the document disclosed for the first time the financial transactions between OpenAI and its major strategic partners in detail. During 2025, SoftBank paid OpenAI $867 million, while Microsoft paid $303 million. Meanwhile, OpenAI paid Microsoft service fees of up to $17.2 billion in the 2025 calendar year, of which $10.59 billion was accounted for as R&D expenses (widely believed to be for model training costs), and $6.047 billion was related to revenue costs. By the end of 2025, OpenAI still had approximately $3.64 billion in liabilities to Microsoft.