Consumer and enterprise interest in generative AI has surged. As of November last year, 92% of Fortune 500 companies used OpenAI's products, and the number of weekly active users of ChatGPT has reached 100 million. OpenAI’s annual revenue may have exceeded the US$2 billion milestone, making it one of the fastest-growing technology companies in history.
On Friday, the media quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that OpenAI’s annual revenue may have reached $2 billion in December 2023 (a measure of monthly revenue multiplied by 12). According to previous media reports, its annual revenue reached US$1.3 billion as of October last year, and the pace of revenue growth continues to accelerate.
People familiar with the matter added that more and more enterprise customers are adopting generative AI tools to improve work efficiency, and this number is expected to double by 2025.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, previously stated that consumer and enterprise interest in generative AI has soared. As of November last year, 92% of Fortune 500 companies used OpenAI products, including ChatGPT and its underlying artificial intelligence model GPT-4. The number of weekly active users of the AI chatbot ChatGPT has reached 100 million.
As growth accelerates, OpenAI's valuation has risen. Recently, OpenAI raised funds at a valuation of US$86 billion, which is approximately three times the valuation in April last year.
Despite rapid revenue growth, Altman previously pointed out that OpenAI is still losing money due to the high cost of building and running models. Spending is expected to continue to outpace revenue growth as the company develops more sophisticated models, and the company may need to raise tens of billions more to meet costs.
In order to solve this problem, Altman seeks to raise up to US$7 trillion in funds to increase global chip manufacturing capabilities and reduce the costs of artificial intelligence companies such as OpenAI. People familiar with the matter pointed out that Altman suggested that OpenAI, various investors, chip manufacturers and power suppliers establish partnerships to jointly fund the establishment of chip foundries.
He posted on X this week:
Building large-scale AI infrastructure and resilient supply chains are critical to competitiveness, and OpenAI will do its best to help!
In addition, OpenAI’s competitors, including technology giants such as Google and Meta, as well as startups such as Anthropic, Mistral, and Cohere, have begun commercializing their artificial intelligence products. On Thursday, Google announced the launch of Gemini, a new artificial intelligence system. Users can use the advanced version of Google Gemini for $20 per month.