According to The Information, Sam Altman, CEO of artificial intelligence company OpenAI, informed employees that the company's annualized revenue has reached $3.4 billion over the past six months. This figure indicates that despite intense competition, OpenAI's growth is accelerating.
By comparison, OpenAI's annualized revenue was only $1.6 billion at the end of 2023, and around $1 billion last summer. This significant growth is primarily due to the subscription version of ChatGPT, which offers higher message limits for users paying at least $20 per month. Additionally, OpenAI earns substantial revenue from charging developers to use the company's large language models in their own applications and services.
Approximately $200 million in annual revenue comes from Microsoft, which sells OpenAI's large language models to customers through its enterprise cloud platform Azure, bringing a certain percentage of revenue share to OpenAI. This partnership further drives OpenAI's revenue growth.
As of now, OpenAI has not immediately responded to media requests for comment. Earlier this week, Apple announced a partnership with OpenAI. The company plans to integrate ChatGPT directly into its iPhone, iPad, and Mac operating systems, allowing Siri to contact ChatGPT to answer questions. However, the financial terms of this deal remain undisclosed.