OpenAI's 2025 net loss reached $38.53 billion, up from $5.09 billion in 2024, according to audited financial documents independently verified by the Financial Times and reported exclusively by journalist Ed Zitron.

Revenue rose from $3.7 billion in 2024 to $13.07 billion in 2025, with monthly revenue reaching $2 billion by year-end. However, total costs surged to $34 billion for the year. Research and development spending climbed from $7.81 billion in 2024 to $19.18 billion in 2025. Sales and marketing reached $5.73 billion, and general and administrative costs hit $1.57 billion. The loss from operations alone was $20.92 billion.

A significant portion of the net loss stemmed from OpenAI's conversion from a non-profit to a for-profit entity. That restructuring triggered a $41.55 billion loss tied to changes in the fair value of convertible interests and warrant liability. Summary 2 characterizes most of the year-over-year loss increase as coming from a roughly $30 billion non-cash accounting charge related to that conversion, noting that investors previously held convertible interest rights rather than standard equity, which were revalued under accounting rules after the restructuring. After accounting for interest income, interest expense, and adjustments removing $17.87 billion through noncontrolling members capital and $3.95 billion through redeemable noncontrolling interests, the net loss attributable to OpenAI settled at $38.53 billion. Excluding the one-time non-cash charge and other non-cash items, the operational loss was approximately $8 billion.

OpenAI paid Microsoft $10.59 billion for research and development expenses, believed to cover model training costs. Total expenses to Microsoft across all categories amounted to $17.2 billion, with $3.64 billion in liabilities remaining at year-end. SoftBank paid OpenAI $867 million in 2025, while Microsoft paid the company $303 million.

Despite the losses, OpenAI held just over $50 billion in assets at year-end, with nearly half in cash. The company raised $122 billion in funding earlier in 2024 at a reported valuation of $730 billion. OpenAI has confidentially filed IPO paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and some senior figures and investors expect a public listing as soon as autumn, which could value the company at over $1 trillion. This sets up a competitive timeline with Anthropic, which also filed IPO paperwork after raising $65 billion at a $900 billion valuation.

OpenAI has streamlined its focus, shelving some side projects like the video generation tool Sora to concentrate on its core consumer chatbot and business AI tools. The company declined to comment on the financial figures.

Original Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (openai) (softbank) (microsoft)

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