OpenAI spent $3.7 billion in just the first three months of 2026, according to reporting by The Information — a burn rate that works out to more than $40 million a day.
The company brought in $5.7 billion in revenue during the same period, according to Benzinga, meaning its costs consumed nearly two-thirds of what it earned. That gap is hard to paper over: a business losing that much money relative to revenue has very little room for error.
Zoom out and the picture grows starker. Benzinga also reports that OpenAI lost $39 billion across all of last year, suggesting the quarterly losses are not a new problem but a persistent structural one.
The news rattled investors in OpenAI's partners: shares of SoftBank Group fell following the reports of the steep spending figures, according to Investing.com. SoftBank has made OpenAI one of its most prominent bets.
Despite the losses, OpenAI is reportedly considering a price war with rival Anthropic, according to Benzinga — a move that would put further pressure on already thin margins in exchange for market share. The timing is notable: the company is also said to be navigating IPO speculation, meaning it would be seeking public investment while openly considering a strategy that would likely deepen near-term losses.
The story matters because it illustrates the central tension of the AI boom: the leading companies are spending at a scale that would sink most businesses, betting that dominance now will pay off later — but the path to profitability remains unclear.