OpenAI had a great year. According to The Information, the company will reach annual sales of more than $1 billion for the first time in 2023.

OpenAI may not have released its annual financial report yet, but The Information believes it already knows the numbers. According to well-informed sources, the company will generate annual sales of $1.6 billion by 2023. A record for OpenAI, which in comparison achieved annual revenue of $28 million in 2022.

OpenAI generates its revenue primarily from paid ChatGPT Plus subscriptions and APIs that it offers to developers for a fee. The billion-dollar revenue also comes with the caveat that training and maintaining ChatGPT costs the company a lot more money. OpenAI itself only partially benefits from the billion-dollar jackpot created thanks to ChatGPT.

OpenAI currently relies on generous sponsors to stay afloat. In addition to the many billions that Microsoft is already pumping into the company, the company is actively looking for new capital. An investment round is currently underway that could increase the company’s value to over $100 billion. Of course, these investors can be appeased with good sales figures.

Nonprofit for profit

The company OpenAI has a very special ownership structure. Officially, it has been a non-profit organization focused on research in the field of AI technology since its founding in 2015 and is known by that name as OpenAI Inc. However, day-to-day management is the responsibility of OpenAI Global LLC, which has been registered as a trading company since 2019 and must therefore try to generate profits.

This duality sometimes creates tension in the boardroom. The board tried to fire CEO Sam Altman in November. Ultimately, Altman prevailed and it was the rebellious board that had to go.