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

In a special exclusive episode of Better Offline, Ed Zitron digs into the audited financials of OpenAI from 2024 and 2025. Companion newsletter: www.wheresyoured.at/exclusive-openai-financials/ https://www.wheresyoured.at/exclusive-openai-financials/ Save $10 off a year of my premium newsletter: https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/gzqwkv54e1 - I’d be so grateful! YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more. Buy our new “FUCK DATA CENTERS” shirts today! --- LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/ Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/ Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at https://discord.com/invite/QUUQUP9szv Ed's Socials: https://twitter.com/edzitron https://www.instagram.com/edzitron https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com https://www.threads.net/@edzitron Email Me: [email protected] mailto:[email protected] See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:04Speaker 01

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• 0:21Ed Zitron?

  Callzo Media. I'm Ed Zitron, this is Better Offline, and I've seen OpenAI's audited financials for 2024 and 2025. Play the goddamn music, man.

• 0:44Ed Zitron?

  Today 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 going to somewhat punt on giving every single number here. You can find the companion newsletter in the show notes, which goes into much more detail,

• 1:27Ed Zitron?

  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. Let'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,

• 2:07Ed Zitron?

  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. Its 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 nonprofit to a for-profit entity, leading to a $41.55 billion loss due to changes in the fair value of convertible interest and warrant liability.

• 2:50Ed Zitron?

  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 via a net loss attributable to redeeming non-controlling interests. It's unclear what these terms mean. They are not defined, and I have nothing else to add there. In 2025, $867 million of OpenAI's revenue was from SoftBank, and $303 million was from Microsoft. I intend to follow up this story in the next month with more in-depth reporting related to the documents. They're detailed, and I need time to fully pass them.

• 3:33Ed Zitron?

  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. I 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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• 5:25Speaker 00

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