OpenAI loses $38.5 billion: AI expenses skyrocket to $34 billion, losses increase 8 times
OpenAI's financial situation took a dramatic turn in 2025. According to data from verified financial documents, the company's net loss reached a staggering $38.5 billion. For comparison, in 2024 this figure was only $5.09 billion — meaning losses grew nearly eightfold. This trend clearly demonstrates how costly the race for leadership in artificial intelligence has become.
Numbers That Speak for Themselves
In 2024, OpenAI's revenue was $3.7 billion, with total expenses of $12.48 billion. Operating losses at that time amounted to $8.78 billion. However, 2025 painted a completely different picture. Revenue grew to $13.07 billion, but expenses surged to $34 billion. The main cost item was research and development, which cost the company $19.18 billion. Another $7.5 billion went to cost of revenue, and $5.73 billion to sales and marketing. As a result, operating losses reached $20.92 billion.
A key factor that worsened the situation was OpenAI's transition from a non-profit to a for-profit structure. This change led to a revaluation of convertible instruments and warrants, adding $41.55 billion to the losses. After excluding certain items, including non-controlling interests, the net loss was reduced to $38.53 billion.
Partnership with Microsoft: The Cost of Infrastructure
The documents also reveal the scale of OpenAI's financial relationship with Microsoft. For the 2025 calendar year, the company paid Microsoft $10.59 billion under "research and development" — likely the cost of training models on cloud infrastructure. Another $6.047 billion went to cost of revenue, $527 million to sales and marketing, and $42 million to administrative expenses. In total, OpenAI's expenses to Microsoft amounted to $17.2 billion.
At the end of the year, liabilities to Microsoft reached $3.64 billion, plus $21 million in accrued and other current liabilities, and an additional $58 million in long-term liabilities. These figures highlight how heavily OpenAI depends on its infrastructure partner.
Cryptalist Analysis: What This Means for the Market
OpenAI's financial performance is not just a single company's report but a mirror of the entire AI industry. Developing cutting-edge models requires massive investments in computing power, which currently far outpace revenue. The main source of losses is not salaries or research, but the cost of servicing billions of daily queries on expensive chips. OpenAI has already contracted about $600 billion in future data center expenses. This means that in the coming years, we will likely see either a sharp increase in AI service prices or market consolidation around a few major players capable of withstanding such financial pressure.