Artificial Intelligence

OpenAI's Quarterly Operating Loss Grew to $10.9 Billion as Revenue Hit $10 Billion, WSJ Reports

Documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal show the adjusted operating margin improved to -109% from -150%; OpenAI's CFO, on the record, credited enterprise growth for the revenue jump.

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OpenAI's Quarterly Operating Loss Grew to $10.9 Billion as Revenue Hit $10 Billion, WSJ Reports
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A calculator, pen, and printed financial documents on a desk

Illustrative photo of a calculator, a pen, and printed financial documents on a desk; it is not OpenAI or the documents described in this article. The calculator shows a Hewlett-Packard mark and a 17B II model label. The papers show printed investment-value figures and handwritten notes, including "Start at monthly," "Can we do this?," and a circled "R 35 414."

OpenAI's operating losses widened to $10.9 billion in the third quarter from $10.1 billion in the prior quarter, even as revenue rose about 50% to $10 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, according to Reuters. OpenAI told investors its adjusted operating margin improved to -109% from -150%, according to documents viewed by the Journal.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment; DailyMech has not seen the documents or the Journal's article, and OpenAI, a private company, has not published these figures. CFO Sarah Friar, in an on-the-record interview with Yahoo Finance, confirmed revenue rose nearly 50% quarter over quarter to $10 billion.

At a glance

Item Detail Source/status
Q3 revenue About $10 billion, up about 50% WSJ via Reuters; Friar on record (Yahoo)
Operating losses $10.9 billion, from $10.1 billion Documents viewed by WSJ, via Reuters
Adjusted operating margin -109%, from -150% Documents viewed by WSJ, via Reuters
Run rate Roughly $50 billion Friar, Yahoo Finance
Revenue mix About 50/50 enterprise and consumer Friar, Yahoo Finance
Company comment on losses None; did not immediately respond to Reuters Reuters

What the documents show, according to the Journal

According to documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal, as reported by Reuters, OpenAI told investors its adjusted operating margin improved to -109% from -150% in the prior quarter. The company's operating losses widened to $10.9 billion from $10.1 billion, the Journal reported, according to Reuters. Losses grew in dollars even as the adjusted margin became less negative; it remains deeply negative.

Reuters does not say whether the $10.9 billion is a GAAP, net or adjusted measure, so this article uses Reuters' term, "operating losses." DailyMech has not seen the documents or the Journal's article, which was visible only as a headline and summary line through aggregators.

Reuters said the disclosure comes as investors closely scrutinize the finances of AI companies, including rival Anthropic as it prepares for an IPO that "could value the AI startup at about $1.4 trillion."

What OpenAI's CFO said on the record

Friar told Yahoo Finance's Deirdre Bosa that third-quarter revenue rose nearly 50% quarter over quarter to $10 billion, with an annual run rate of roughly $50 billion, according to Yahoo Finance's Daniel Howley. Yahoo reported that Friar credited OpenAI's frontier research and enterprise business for the growth.

"Our enterprise business doubled quarter over quarter," Friar said. Yahoo reported that revenue is now split 50/50 between OpenAI's enterprise and consumer business. "What's driving that is products like Coding, Cyber, starting to get more virtual assistants like Dots into the enterprise," Friar said; Yahoo describes Dots as OpenAI's AI agent platform for enterprise. She added that the small-business offering grew more in the third quarter than in the prior six quarters, Yahoo reported.

On the consumer side, Yahoo reported sales improving 20% quarter over quarter, subscriptions topping 100 million users and 1.2 billion weekly active users.

"Part of it was we were really stuck on this [Microsoft] Azure contract that we had," Friar said, according to Yahoo. She also said: "I think getting that unlocked, Anthropic showed me just the power of that model, and I think for us that can be a very big tailwind in 2027."

Yahoo's account of the interview does not address the losses or margins.

What is still unclear

DailyMech has not seen the underlying documents or the Journal's full report, and OpenAI did not immediately respond to Reuters about the figures. Prior-quarter growth rates are omitted here because outlets reported different figures.

Yahoo Finance's Bosa said on air that OpenAI's and Anthropic's quarterly growth rates are now "basically neck and neck," while noting "there are some differences in how these companies account for cloud sales." DailyMech has not compared the two companies' figures.

What to watch

Whether OpenAI comments on the loss figures. Whether more detail from the documents emerges. How investors weigh OpenAI's economics against Anthropic's during Anthropic's IPO period.

How we reported this

DailyMech read Reuters' report in two reprints, on Investing.com and CNA, and could not find it on reuters.com. It did not read the Journal's article (only its headline and summary line were visible) or the underlying documents. It read Yahoo Finance's account of Friar's interview and part of Bosa's segment transcript. The Information's report was paywalled and not used. Q2 growth rates are omitted because outlets reported different figures. DailyMech contacted no one.

Published and fact-checked November 10, 2026.

Sources

DailyMech used AI tools to help research and draft this article; it was fact-checked by our editors.

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