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Leaked OpenAI financials show $38.5B loss and compute burn

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Re: Leaked OpenAI financials show $38.5B loss and compute burn

#4
> OpenAI's spending mix shows why. The reported 2025 figures include $7.5 billion in cost of revenue, $19.18 billion in research and development, $5.73 billion in sales and marketing, and $1.57 billion in general and administrative expense

How the hell did they spend 5.7 billion in "sales and marketing"?

Re: Leaked OpenAI financials show $38.5B loss and compute burn

#5

> OpenAI's spending mix shows why. The reported 2025 figures include $7.5 billion in cost of revenue, $19.18 billion in research and development, $5.73 billion in sales and marketing, and $1.57 billion in general and administrative expense How the hell did they spend 5.7 billion in "sales and marketing"?

Might be bribes and subsidies

Re: Leaked OpenAI financials show $38.5B loss and compute burn

#6

> OpenAI's spending mix shows why. The reported 2025 figures include $7.5 billion in cost of revenue, $19.18 billion in research and development, $5.73 billion in sales and marketing, and $1.57 billion in general and administrative expense How the hell did they spend 5.7 billion in "sales and marketing"?

Discounted contracts for big clients? Commissions? Both?

If this can be trusted, they are selling $1 for ~95 cents, and are spending $3 on R&D. This is... Not an unsustainable business model as long as the money keeps flowing.

Re: Leaked OpenAI financials show $38.5B loss and compute burn

#8
Revenue is higher than cost of revenue and revenue is growing faster than cost of revenue.

We know OpenAI is forecasting $25-30B revenue for 2026. They will be very close to breaking even at those number.

Given Anthropic has forecast more revenue than OpenAI and we know has spent less on R&D (cite their desperate scramble for compute capacity!) the rumours of them being profitable this year seem very credible.

Re: Leaked OpenAI financials show $38.5B loss and compute burn

#9
post #8

Revenue is higher than cost of revenue and revenue is growing faster than cost of revenue. We know OpenAI is forecasting $25-30B revenue for 2026. They will be very close to breaking even at those number. Given Anthropic has forecast more revenue than OpenAI and we know has spent less on R&D (cite their desperate scramble for compute capacity!) the rumours of them being profitable this year seem very credible.

Sales and marketing have to be added to the COR, which makes COR slightly > Revenue.

Re: Leaked OpenAI financials show $38.5B loss and compute burn

#10

> OpenAI's spending mix shows why. The reported 2025 figures include $7.5 billion in cost of revenue, $19.18 billion in research and development, $5.73 billion in sales and marketing, and $1.57 billion in general and administrative expense How the hell did they spend 5.7 billion in "sales and marketing"?

they're spending like 9 figures on a single marketing agency - this doesn't surprise me whatsoever
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