OpenAI in 2025: losses soared to $38.5 billion — what's behind the record losses
OpenAI's 2025 financial report paints a frightening picture for the entire artificial intelligence industry. The company at the helm of the generative model revolution recorded a net loss of $38.5 billion. This figure is nearly eight times the previous year's losses and calls into question the sustainability of a business model based on scaling.
Revenues are growing, but expenses are spiraling out of control
In 2024, OpenAI's revenue was a modest $3.7 billion, with total expenses of $12.48 billion. Operating losses then reached $8.78 billion, and the net deficit, including interest items, grew to $8.84 billion. However, 2025 came as a real shock: revenue jumped to $13.07 billion—impressive growth—but expenses soared to $34 billion. The operating loss amounted to $20.92 billion.
The key cost driver is research and development, which consumed $19.18 billion. Another $7.5 billion was "eaten up" by the cost of revenue, and $5.73 billion by sales and marketing. The numbers relentlessly show that the race for AI leadership requires colossal investments in computing power, which are still outpacing revenues by a multiple.
Business transformation and debt to Microsoft
2025 was a turning point for OpenAI in terms of corporate structure. The transition from a non-profit organization to a commercial entity led to a one-time loss of $41.55 billion due to the revaluation of convertible instruments and warrants. Excluding these items, the net loss was reduced to $38.53 billion, but the essence remains the same.
Relations with Microsoft deserve special attention. Over the 2025 calendar year, OpenAI paid the tech giant $10.59 billion under the "research and development" line—likely the cost of training models on Azure's cloud infrastructure. Another $6.047 billion went to the cost of revenue, and $527 million to sales and marketing. In total, expenses in favor of Microsoft amounted to a staggering $17.2 billion. By the end of the year, OpenAI's liabilities to Microsoft reached $3.64 billion.
Cryptalist Analysis: What This Means for the Market
OpenAI's numbers expose a fundamental problem for the entire industry: the cost of servicing billions of daily queries on expensive chips is growing faster than the ability to monetize users. The company has already contracted about $600 billion in future data center expenses. This means we will either see a sharp increase in API and subscription prices, or the industry is headed for consolidation. For now, investors are betting that scale will ultimately overcome costs, but 2025 showed that this path is fraught with challenges and requires a massive financial cushion.