Exclusive: OpenAI Spent $34 Billion In 2025, With Losses Up 8X

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0:39I'm Ed Zitron. This is Better Offline. And I've seen OpenAI's audited financials for 2024 and 2025. Play the goddamn music, man.

0:59Today I can exclusively report based on audited financial documents viewed by this podcast that have been independently verified by the Financial Times that OpenAI lost around$38.5 billion in 2025, growing said losses by nearly 800 % year over year, as well as other crucial details about the financial condition of this company. Due to the seriousness of this story, I'm not going to do very much editorializing. I'm going to keep things straight laced as the numbers speak for themselves and well i want to come up with better jokes but no seriously folks we've got to take this one seriously i'm serious i'm also gonna somewhat punt on giving every single number here you can find the companion newsletter in the show notes which goes into much more detail but i want to give you the top line and let you know that i intend to do more with this but i had to get this out when i had to get it out and there were by the way no situations where I was trying to delay this, this went out the second I could.

1:55Let's start with 2024. OpenAI had$3.7 billion in revenue,$12.4 billion in costs and expenses, and a net loss attributable to OpenAI of$5.09 billion. Its cost of revenue was$2.65 billion, and its R &D costs were$7.81 billion. I do not have a breakdown of how these terms are defined. Technically, OpenAI was left with an$8.84 billion loss at the end of 2024, but it then marked$3.74 billion of losses as net loss attributable to non-controlling members' capital, leaving the net loss attributable to the company, as I mentioned, at$5.09 billion. I won't speculate as to what that means. Now, in 2025, OpenAI had around$38.5 billion in losses attributable to the company.

2:43Its revenue was$13.07 billion, its cost of revenue was$7.5 billion, and its R &D was$19.18 billion. Please note that 2025 was also the year that OpenAI converted from a non-profitable for-profit entity, leading to a$41.55 billion loss due to changes in the fair value of convertible interest and warrant liability. In the end, OpenAI is left with a net loss of$60.35 billion, which it lowered to$38.53 billion by removing$17.87 billion in costs via that net loss attributable to non-controlling members capital line and another 3.95 billion dollars via a net loss attributable to redeeming non-controlling interests it's unclear what these terms mean i they they are not defined and i have nothing else to add there in 2025 867 million dollars of open ai's revenue was from softbank and 303 million dollars was from microsoft i intend to follow up this story in the next month with more in-depth reporting related to the documents.

3:45They're detailed and I need time to fully pass them. Once I've done so, you'll know. I will say that the financial condition of OpenAI is deeply concerning. $38.5 billion in losses are around there, are astronomical, and are far higher than most believed it would be and indeed are very different to those that have been previously reported. Losses also appear to be mounting year over year at a dramatic rate, and I'm not sure how this company finds a way toward any kind of sustainability or profitability. I have, as mentioned, saved the editorializing today. I'm not going to do it. I need more time.

4:21I believe the best thing I can do for the general public is to deliver this news as plainly as possible. More to come. Zitron out.

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7:04This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.