OpenAI and Anthropic ARR figures draw scrutiny over undefined, inconsistent accounting methodology
2026-10-13
Per the Financial Times, as relayed by Ed Zitron, OpenAI's widely reported $70 billion annualized recurring revenue (ARR) figure was revised down to roughly $50 billion when calculated on a basis consistent with how other labs report; the gap stemmed from OpenAI "grossing up" the number to include sales through cloud partners. The FT reported that Anthropic recognizes gross revenue on cloud-partner sales (as the principal in the transaction) while OpenAI counts only its own cut of partner-arrangement proceeds, and that OpenAI described the $70bn figure as "net" when approached by the FT. Separately, Anthropic told investors in August it had reached $65 billion in annualized run rate without publicly defining the calculation period or method; Zitron, citing the analyst account "Irrational Analysis," says the figure may rest on an unusually aggressive single-day annualization rather than a trailing-28-day average.
Significance 3: Material to trust in investor-facing revenue claims at two frontier labs ahead of Anthropic's IPO, but the only source in hand is Zitron's critical-leaning relay of FT reporting rather than the primary FT article, so significance is held at 3 pending direct corroboration.
Implications · machine-drafted, not owner judgment
If ARR figures at both labs rest on undefined or inconsistent methodology, independent assessments of AI-industry revenue growth — and by extension the enterprise-ROI debate — are less reliable than headline numbers suggest. This adds direct pressure on Anthropic specifically as it heads toward an IPO where investors will demand defined, auditable metrics, extending the stated-vs-revealed scrutiny already applied to its September prospectus-disclosed losses.
- Anthropic defining its ARR methodology in IPO roadshow or prospectus materials
- A primary FT article or SEC filing independently confirming the $50B OpenAI figure
Sources
- curator Annualized Enron Rate retrieved 2026-10-13