TLDRs;
- OpenAI generated $4.3B revenue in H1 2025 but suffered a net loss of $13.5B, driven by high expenses.
- Research and development consumed $6.7B, while sales and stock compensation nearly doubled compared to last year.
- The firm burned $2.5B in cash, paid Microsoft 20% of revenue, and is seeking $30B in new funding.
- Long-term forecasts project $115B in cash burn through 2029 as OpenAI builds chips, data centers, and expands partnerships.
OpenAI has revealed eye-popping numbers from the first half of 2025. The artificial intelligence powerhouse reported $4.3 billion in revenue but ended the same period with a staggering net loss of $13.5 billion.
More than half of this figure was linked to the remeasurement of convertible interest rights, a technical accounting move that further widened its losses.
Rising Costs Outpace Revenue Growth
While income is growing, expenses are soaring faster. Research and development remained the single largest outlay, consuming $6.7 billion in the six-month period as the company continues to expand its AI capabilities.
Sales and marketing also skyrocketed to $2 billion, nearly twice the total it spent in all of 2024. Additionally, stock-based compensation nearly doubled to $2.5 billion compared with the same stretch last year.
Altogether, operating losses ballooned to $7.8 billion. Most alarming to investors, the company admitted it burned through $2.5 billion in cash during the half-year window.
OpenAI: $4.3B revenue, $2.5B burned in H1 2025.
That's a 58% burn rate while Big Tech's capex-to-revenue ratios (Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia) climb to unprecedented levels.
Is resource investment running ahead of monetization? When does AI spending turn into AI… pic.twitter.com/baOI6vwDxU
— MacroMicro (@MacroMicroMe) September 30, 2025
Microsoft, Cash Reserves, and New Funding Plans
OpenAI’s relationship with Microsoft continues to play a major role in its financial picture. Under a revenue-sharing arrangement, 20% of OpenAI’s income flows directly to the tech giant.
Despite its heavy losses, the company still held $17.5 billion in cash and securities at the end of June, largely thanks to a $10 billion funding boost earlier in the year. By late July, OpenAI was already seeking an additional $30 billion in fresh capital.
If successful, the fundraising would help offset its mounting expenses, while also supporting ambitious infrastructure projects aimed at scaling up AI computing capacity. Investors have placed a hefty valuation of around $500 billion on OpenAI’s for-profit arm, signaling enduring confidence in its long-term potential despite the financial setbacks.
Long-Term Burn Projections Raise Concerns
The financial disclosures arrive shortly after reports that OpenAI expects to burn through $115 billion by 2029, an $80 billion increase from its previous forecast.
The company has become one of the world’s largest renters of cloud computing power, with data center demands surging as usage of its ChatGPT platform grows worldwide.
In 2025 alone, OpenAI anticipates spending more than $8 billion, $1.5 billion higher than projections made earlier this year. To curb these ballooning costs, the company is investing in its own hardware. OpenAI is reportedly working with Broadcom to build custom AI chips, expected to debut next year, which will be used internally rather than sold to customers.
Meanwhile, its partnerships are expanding. A deal with Oracle is set to deliver 4.5 gigawatts of data center capacity, part of the broader $500 billion Stargate initiative backed by SoftBank. Alphabet’s Google Cloud has also joined the roster of suppliers, further diversifying OpenAI’s infrastructure backbone.
