OpenAI is accelerating its growth rate. As the paid subscription base expands rapidly and the number of global users continues to increase, the issue of insufficient computing resources due to the skyrocketing demand for AI has emerged as a new challenge.
Sarah Pryor, OpenAI's Chief Financial Officer (CFO), noted in an interview with U.S. CNBC on the 20th (local time) that 'July revenue has surpassed $1 billion for the first time.' This marks a record achieved 2 years and 8 months after the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.
Revenue for OpenAI is generated from paid subscription services such as ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Enterprise, and Edu, with the number of paid subscribers exceeding 5 million. The weekly active user count for ChatGPT has surpassed 700 million. The company stated that as of June, its annual recurring revenue (ARR) had reached $10 billion.
Pryor, the CFO, said, 'Currently, the demand for GPUs and computing resources is surging, and the biggest issue is the lack of computing resources.' She explained that they have launched the 'Stargate' project and are pushing for the construction of large-scale data centers to address this issue.
Additionally, while expanding infrastructure cooperation with companies such as Oracle and CoreWeave, she emphasized that Microsoft (MS) remains a key partner. Pryor stated, 'MS will remain an important partner for the next few years, and MS's AI products are built on OpenAI technology.'
OpenAI recently launched GPT-5 and is expanding its paid services. Some point out that its performance is inferior to that of the transfer model, but Pryor stated, 'Because the number of users is so large, opinions are necessarily varied,' adding that 'the growth rate of Plus and Pro subscriptions has actually accelerated since the release of GPT-5.'