Leaked OpenAI 2025 financials, verified by the Financial Times, show a 38.5B USD net loss

Category: Markets
Status: developing
Sources: Ars Technica, originating report, discussion
Summary: Leaked audited 2025 financial documents, first surfaced by Ed Zitron and independently verified by the Financial Times, report OpenAI revenue of 13.07B USD against total costs of 34B USD, with a net loss of 38.53B USD. Revenue more than tripled from roughly 3.7B USD in 2024. The headline net loss includes a 41.55B USD non-cash charge tied to the nonprofit-to-for-profit conversion; the underlying operating loss was about 20.9B USD, and some analysts put the cash operating loss nearer 8B USD. Research and development was the largest line at 19.18B USD, and OpenAI paid Microsoft 17.2B USD for compute and research. OpenAI has not confirmed or disputed the figures during its pre-IPO quiet period.
Comments: HN commenters noted revenue growth (about 3.5x) outpaced cost growth (about 3x) and that cost of revenue of 7.5B USD against 13.07B USD revenue implies a positive inference gross margin; several flagged that profitability projections hinge on GPU depreciation assumptions.
Why it matters: Compute spend and loss trajectory shape the pricing and durability of the AI developer platforms many teams now depend on, though the documents are leaked and unconfirmed by OpenAI.
Follow-up: Track OpenAI confirmation, the public S-1, and whether the one-time conversion charge recurs.