Households and businesses face higher prices and tighter data rules after OpenAI posted a $20.92 billion operating loss in 2025, the audited accounts show. The statements, obtained by journalist Ed Zitron and reviewed by the Financial Times, report $13.07 billion of revenue against $34 billion of total costs and expenses. The accounts detail a rapid revenue ramp from $3.7 billion in 2024 to $13.07 billion in 2025, but also sharply higher compute, R&D and marketing bills. Management tells investors it's targeting profitability around 2030, and the figures arrive as OpenAI prepares confidential SEC paperwork ahead of an IPO expected later in 2026.

Investors and cloud partners face direct financial pain because the filings show $13.07 billion in revenue was overwhelmed by $34 billion in costs and expenses in 2025. That imbalance produced a headline operating loss of $20.92 billion, one of the largest corporate operating deficits in recent history according to the audited statements reviewed by the Financial Times.

What the numbers say

The accounts list the components in stark detail. Revenue climbed from $3.7 billion in 2024 to $13.07 billion in 2025, with monthly revenue approaching nearly $2 billion by the end of the year. Cost of revenue jumped from $2.65 billion to $7.5 billion, a rise the filings link to compute and inference costs as model usage scaled.

Research and development spending expanded from $7.81 billion in 2024 to $19.18 billion in 2025. Sales and marketing expenses rose from $1.11 billion to $5.73 billion, and general and administrative costs increased from $907 million to $1.57 billion. Those lines combined produced total costs and expenses of $34 billion in 2025, up from $12.48 billion the prior year.

Measured against revenue, the company made progress but remained far below breakeven. Operating loss as a percentage of revenue narrowed from about 237 percent in 2024 to roughly 160 percent in 2025, reflecting the rapid revenue ramp even as absolute losses grew. Gross margins expanded as sales rose, but the scale of R&D and compute spending left the business operating well below breakeven.

Part of the 2025 R&D bill is routed through a deep commercial relationship with Microsoft. The filings, and reporting by Ars Technica, show $10.59 billion of 2025 R&D was paid to Microsoft, highlighting how infrastructure and commercial partnerships are central to OpenAI's spending profile.

Mastheads

That arrangement means cloud infrastructure partners will see large flows tied to model training and inference.

The audited accounts also record a separate, substantial accounting adjustment tied to financing instruments. Ed Zitron reported, and the Financial Times reviewed, a fair-value change on convertible interests and warrant liabilities that amounted to a very large charge. That adjustment materially increased the net-loss headline beyond the operating loss recorded for the year.

For households the primary transmission channels are product pricing and data-use policy. The documents explicitly flag that end consumers will feel the effects mainly through how services are priced and how data is handled. For enterprise customers the consequences are commercial: higher fees, new contract terms, or different service-level offers as OpenAI seeks to align revenues with persistent compute and development costs.

Investors face timing and transparency risks. The audited 2025 figures are the clearest public accounting yet of how the company is financing model training, deployment and commercial expansion. OpenAI has confidentially filed paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission as it prepares for an initial public offering expected later in 2026, and the audited figures feed directly into what will appear in any amended S-1 disclosures ahead of an IPO.

Management has told investors it's targeting profitability around 2030, a horizon reiterated in materials reviewed alongside the financial statements. That target frames how the company will justify heavy near-term spending: rapid product rollout and model scaling now, with profitability expected further down the line.

The timing matters. The accounts arrive during the SEC filing process, and they will influence valuations, investor questions and the commercial bargaining between OpenAI and its cloud partners. A company running at these absolute loss levels must either show an immediate path to margin improvement or lean on continued external financing and favourable contract terms with partners.

Reporting and review of the documents has been handled publicly. The financial statements were obtained by journalist Ed Zitron and reviewed by the Financial Times. Ars Technica and other outlets have also summarised elements of the filings, particularly the Microsoft-linked R&D payments and the substantial accounting adjustment tied to convertible instruments.

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The next milestone is the SEC filing process. Investors should expect amended S-1 disclosures and investor Q&A as OpenAI updates its paperwork ahead of an IPO expected later in 2026.

This article was created with AI assistance.