OpenAI sees better margins on business sales, report says

The company has improved its “account margin,” an internal number that measures the share of revenue after the costs of operating models to pay users of enterprise and consumer products, the post reported. As of October, OpenAI’s compute margins had reached 70%, up from 52% at the end of 2024 and doubling the rate in January 2024, the publication said, citing a person familiar with the numbers.

An OpenAI spokesperson said the company had not released the numbers and declined to comment further.

Read more: OpenAI executives struggle to combat AI spending concerns

The creator of ChatGPT has sparked the modern AI boom, but has yet to show a profit, one of the leading indicators for investors worried about a bubble in the industry. OpenAI, which was last valued at $500 billion in October, has been looking for ways to make money to cover rising computing costs and bold infrastructure plans.

At the same time, the company faces intense pressure from its spending and renewed competition. After Alphabet Inc.’s Gemini model performed poorly. Google is better on standards OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called it “code red” to redirect internal resources to improve ChatGPT, delaying progress on ad serving plans.

Most people use the free version of ChatGPT. However, the company is pushing its business version and paid software features to industries like financial services and education, where it competes with Google and rival Anthropic.

The Information reported that OpenAI has better compute margins than Anthropic for paid accounts, but Anthropic has better overall server spend efficiency.

OpenAI is also in early talks to raise at least $10 billion from Amazon.com Inc. And using its chips, in a deal that could value Altman at up to $500 billion.