OpenAI, the rising technology startup, did not let the recent turmoil affect its performance. The company fired its CEO Sam Altman a few weeks ago, only to bring him back shortly after.
Despite this drama, the latest report from The Information shows that OpenAI, the maker of the chatbot ChatGPT, earned $1.6 billion, surpassing the $1.3 billion mark it reached in mid-October. This means a 20% growth in just two months
Remarkably, this impressive surge in revenue surpasses the figures recorded back in mid-October, despite OpenAI’s rivals attempting to capitalize on its management challenges. Even more encouraging is the belief held by OpenAI members that the company’s annual revenue could skyrocket to a staggering $5 billion by the conclusion of 2024, marking a phenomenal growth rate of over 310%.
The 20% increase achieved in a mere two-month span, as illustrated by the annualized revenue calculation (last month’s revenue multiplied by twelve), underscores the firm’s unwavering capacity to sustain its upward trajectory. This startup not only managed to maintain its momentum but also continued to successfully market its artificial intelligence technology to both corporate clients and individual consumers.
OpenAI’s revenue streams primarily stem from two key sources: the sale of subscriptions for its ChatGPT chatbot and the fees on software developers utilizing its models through an application programming interface, commonly referred to as API.
In December, an exclusive report by Bloomberg unveiled OpenAI’s ongoing efforts to secure additional capital, with a staggering valuation of $100 billion in the works. This valuation implies a remarkable revenue multiple of approximately 62 times its projected earnings.
While this may appear lofty when compared to the more conventional valuation metrics of publicly traded enterprise software companies, it finds alignment with the valuations attributed to swiftly expanding competitors within the same domain.
OpenAI rival Anthropic, a company also specializing in AI model development, had earlier forecasted an annual revenue of $200 million for the current year. Given this context, investors participating in its current funding round are valuing the company at an astonishing 75 times its anticipated revenue.