Report: OpenAI's 2025 Spending Hits $34 Billion with Net Loss Widening to $39 Billion
Miles Bennett
OpenAI burned through $34 billion in 2025 and posted a $39 billion net loss — but nearly 80% of that loss stems from a one-time accounting charge unlikely to recur. The real question before its IPO: can it close an $8 billion operating gap?
Where did the $34 billion go?
Audited figures obtained by the Financial Times show OpenAI's 2025 total spending at roughly $34 billion.
The biggest slice: R&D at about $19 billion, more than half the total. Sales and marketing took nearly $6 billion; the rest went to other operating costs.
This means → for every $1 earned, OpenAI spent roughly $2.60 — revenue is growing fast, but cash is burning faster.
Is revenue growing fast enough?
Full-year 2025 revenue came in at about $13 billion. By year-end, monthly revenue had hit $2 billion, a sharp acceleration from the $1 billion per quarter pace at end-2024.
That growth rate ranks among the fastest in corporate history — yet the gap between revenue and spending keeps widening: $13 billion in vs. $34 billion out.
In plain terms = sales are surging, but costs are surging harder. The scissors haven't closed.
Why is the $39 billion loss less alarming than it looks?
Net loss jumped from roughly $5 billion in 2024 to about $39 billion in 2025 — nearly an eightfold increase on paper.
The bulk — about $30 billion — is a one-time, non-cash accounting charge. Before OpenAI converted to a public-benefit corporation, investors held convertible profit interests — a special class of rights that accounting rules treat as liabilities. As the company's valuation climbed, those interests were marked up, creating a paper expense with no actual cash outflow.
This means → the $30 billion charge neither drained real money nor is expected to recur after the restructuring. Strip out all non-cash items — including stock-based compensation and Microsoft compute credits — and the actual operating loss is about $8 billion.
How close is the IPO?
OpenAI has confidentially filed IPO-related paperwork with the SEC this month. CEO Sam Altman called it "preserving the option," but multiple executives and investors expect a listing as early as this autumn, at a valuation potentially exceeding $1 trillion.
Earlier this year, OpenAI closed a $122 billion funding round at a pre-money valuation of $730 billion.
This reflects a capital market still doubling down — but public investors post-IPO will press harder on one question than private backers did: when does the bleeding stop?
What are the rivals doing?
Competitor Anthropic filed its own IPO paperwork with the SEC in the same month, having just closed a $65 billion round at a $900 billion valuation — already above OpenAI's pre-money figure.
OpenAI has shelved side projects including the video-generation tool Sora, concentrating resources on ChatGPT and enterprise AI tools.
In plain terms = two leading AI companies are racing toward public markets almost simultaneously. Whichever proves it can make money first wins the pricing power.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.