OpenAI Burned $3.7B in Q1 2026

What were OpenAI's Q1 2026 revenue and losses?

OpenAI generated $5.7 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2026, according to internal financial disclosures first reported by The Information. At the same time, the company spent $1.22 for every $1 it brought in. That produced an adjusted operating loss of roughly $6.95 billion for the quarter.

The adjusted operating margin came in at –122%. That figure strips out non-cash items like stock-based compensation but still reflects the raw cost of running one of the world's largest AI platforms.

How does OpenAI's spending compare to its revenue?

Here's what we know so far from the disclosed figures — the gap between revenue and costs is stark.

If the –122% margin holds for the full year, projected losses would reach roughly $36.6 billion against the $30 billion revenue target, as reported by The Information.

What drove OpenAI's Q1 2026 revenue growth?

Revenue growth came from several areas. The Tech Portal reports that ChatGPT subscriptions, enterprise AI tools, developer APIs, and coding products like Codex all contributed. OpenAI is also testing AI-powered advertising inside the ChatGPT app.

The company's API business has become a major revenue engine. Thousands of startups and enterprise software providers now use OpenAI models as foundational infrastructure instead of building their own. The company is now generating around $2 billion in monthly revenue.

You might also like

Sen. Warren Demands SEC Halt SpaceX IPO

AI Productivity Boom Won't Fix the US Deficit

SpaceX Stock Surges Past Amazon After Record IPO

US Holds Back DeepSeek Trade Blacklist

Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser said OpenAI expects its commercial enterprise division to account for 50% of total revenue by the end of the year.

Did ChatGPT hit its user growth targets?

No. OpenAI missed its internal target of reaching 1 billion weekly active users by the end of 2025. Weekly active users averaged 905 million in Q1 2026, down slightly from a peak of 920 million in February.

Of those 905 million weekly users, only 55 million were paying subscribers at the end of Q1 — up from 47 million at the end of 2025. That puts the paying conversion rate at roughly 6%.

How does OpenAI compare to Anthropic in Q1 2026?

OpenAI's $5.7 billion in Q1 revenue put it about $1 billion ahead of Anthropic, which reportedly generated around $4.8 billion in the same period, according to The Information.

The competitive picture shifts when looking forward. Anthropic projects its Q2 revenue will nearly double to around $11 billion, with a projected non-GAAP operating profit of about $600 million — a notable contrast to OpenAI's deep losses. Anthropic's annualized revenue has reportedly climbed to about $45 billion, compared to OpenAI's annualized figure of around $25 billion.

Anthropic has also agreed to terms for a new $30 billion fundraising round that could value the company at around $900 billion — potentially above OpenAI's latest valuation of approximately $852 billion.

For more on how AI revenue models are reshaping the competitive landscape, see our coverage of Perplexity CEO revenue and Zhipu's GLM-5.2 launch.

How is OpenAI funding its operations?

OpenAI closed a $122 billion funding round in March 2026, valuing the company at around $852 billion. Core infrastructure partners include NVIDIA and Amazon. The round makes OpenAI one of the world's most valuable private technology firms.

The company continues to spend heavily on GPUs, cloud infrastructure, data centers, and next-generation model development. Those costs are the primary driver of the –122% adjusted operating margin.

The scale of AI infrastructure investment is a theme across the sector — Nvidia's own manufacturing commitments, including its Texas coherent factory, reflect just how capital-intensive the AI buildout has become.

What is OpenAI's full-year 2026 revenue target?

OpenAI's executive team has said the company remains "on track" to hit $30 billion in full-year 2026 revenue. The company is reportedly generating around $2 billion per month, which would support that target if growth holds.

Both OpenAI and Anthropic have been unusually transparent with financial data ahead of rumored IPOs targeted for as early as Q4 2026. The disclosures come as both companies compete for investor attention and large enterprise contracts. The broader question of how AI economics affect employment is one analysts like Jeff Bezos have also begun to address publicly.

OpenAI's most concrete confirmed milestone remains its $30 billion full-year revenue target, with the company's executive team on record saying it expects to hit that figure.