The annual revenue of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, is expected to exceed $20 billion (27.8 trillion won) this year.
According to the New York Times (NYT) on the 1st (local time), OpenAI's annual recurring revenue (ARR) exceeded $13 billion (18.8 trillion won) by June this year and is projected to surpass $20 billion by the end of the year. ARR refers to the fixed revenue generated by corporations through subscription services and other means over a year.
This significantly exceeds the previously reported figures. Earlier, the U.S. economic outlet CNBC reported that OpenAI's ARR had surpassed $10 billion (13.9 trillion won) in early June, which OpenAI confirmed as accurate. Additionally, the technology news outlet The Information reported that OpenAI's ARR reached $12 billion (16.7 trillion won) by July.
Last year, OpenAI's ARR was about $5.5 billion, meaning sales surged nearly fourfold in a year. Sources noted that OpenAI's number of paid subscribers exceeded 5 million, a significant increase from 3 million a few months ago.
As part of a $40 billion (55.7 trillion won) funding announced last March, OpenAI also secured $8.3 billion (11.5 trillion won) early on. Of the $40 billion, Japan's SoftBank is set to invest $30 billion (41.7 trillion won), while OpenAI plans to raise an additional $10 billion by the end of the year from venture capital and other sources.
OpenAI raised $2.5 billion (3.5 trillion won) from venture capital last March, having already attracted $8.3 billion, a target that was achieved more quickly than initially expected, according to NYT. The investment attracted more than five times the planned amount, with a number of new investors, including the global private equity firm TPG and the world's largest asset management firm BlackRock, participating.
Blackstone and TPG are not major investors in artificial intelligence (AI) model development companies but have invested in OpenAI. Also, Dragoneer Investment Group, known for its early successful investments in Airbnb, Uber, and Spotify, invested $2.8 billion (3.9 trillion won). This accounts for about 10% of the total fund size and is one of the largest amounts for a single venture capital investment ever, according to NYT.
This funding round shows that investor interest in AI platforms is soaring, and as competition among AI model developers intensifies, investors are looking to gain a first-mover advantage, CNBC assessed.