OpenAI made $5.7 billion last quarter while Anthropic made $4.8 billion, according to numbers The Information obtained on Thursday, May 21, from people familiar with the financials. The roughly $1 billion gap puts OpenAI in the lead for now, though that could change soon based on what Anthropic is telling investors about the months coming up.
Anthropic told investors it expects $10.9 billion in revenue for the second quarter, more than doubling its first quarter results. The company also projects an operating profit of $559 million between April and June, which would mark its first profitable quarter, according to investor materials first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Codex and Enterprise Sales Drive OpenAI's Q1 Results
OpenAI’s revenue came from three sources: its coding tool, Codex; growing enterprise sales to businesses; and experimental advertising on ChatGPT. The company now has 55 million paying subscribers, up from 47 million at year-end, and averaged 905 million weekly users during the quarter.
The Codex coding assistant has become a major revenue source for OpenAI, even as it rivals Anthropic’s Claude Code, with both individual developers and large corporations paying for the tool to speed up software development.
Enterprise customers buying AI services for their employees now represent a growing portion of the company's income, though ChatGPT subscriptions still make up the majority.
Based on the first quarter results, OpenAI appears on track to reach approximately $30 billion in revenue for the full year, according to The Information's report.
Anthropic's Q2 Projections Signal Sharp Growth Trajectory
The projected jump from $4.8 billion to $10.9 billion in quarterly revenue represents some of the fastest growth rates in the AI industry. Anthropic's revenue has climbed rapidly this year, driven primarily by enterprise customers using its Claude AI assistant for business applications.
The $559 million operating profit projection would be Anthropic's first profitable quarter, a milestone that comes while OpenAI continues operating at a loss despite higher overall revenue. That profit figure excludes stock-based compensation but includes the costs of training AI models.
On the funding side, Anthropic is reportedly trying to raise money at a valuation of more than $900 billion. The New York Times reported that the valuation would surpass OpenAI’s $852 billion valuation from March. OpenAI also secured $122 billion in commitments from Amazon and NVIDIA this year, while Anthropic raised $30 billion in February at a $380 billion valuation.
Both companies are preparing to go public later this year, with OpenAI working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, while Anthropic has already engaged Wilson Sonsini for legal work on a potential IPO filing.
Damilare Odedina
