❯ OpenAI’s quarterly revenue reaches about $10 billion and adjusted operating margin improves to negative 109%, reports say

Quarterly growth picks up againThe Information reported that OpenAI told investors on November 10 that third-quarter revenue rose nearly 50% from the previous quarter to about $10 billion. The outlet reported 17% sequential growth in the second quarter. Demand for newer models helped drive the rebound, and customers can use the API to integrate those models into their own applications.

The loss per revenue dollar narrowsThe Wall Street Journal’s Berber Jin reported, citing internal materials, that adjusted operating margin improved from negative 150% in the second quarter to negative 109% in the third. On that measure, the operating loss fell from about $150 to $109 for every $100 of revenue. With sales on a larger base, the quarterly adjusted operating loss was still about $10.9 billion.

Usage brings sales and costsOpenAI sells ChatGPT services to individuals and businesses and charges developers for API usage. More API calls generate revenue and require additional compute to answer questions or carry out tasks. Sustaining that pace of API growth will depend partly on whether developers keep embedding newer models in frequently used workflows.

▮ SIGNALOpenAI lost less per dollar of revenue, while the size of the overall loss still depends on how much additional sales can cover training and model-serving costs.