OpenAI has told investors that its annualized revenue — a run rate extrapolated from recent months of sales — stands near $50 billion, according to COINOTAG. That figure is roughly $18 billion short of the $68 billion valuation-era revenue estimate that circulated widely in late September.

The disclosure weighed on the chipmakers tied to OpenAI's spending on computing infrastructure, with shares of Nvidia declining in Thursday trading following the update.

Annualized revenue, or a revenue run rate, is a projection of full-year sales derived from a company's most recent monthly performance, and it is commonly used to gauge the growth trajectory of fast-scaling technology firms between formal reporting periods. Because it extrapolates from a snapshot of recent months rather than a completed fiscal year, a run rate can shift with changes in monthly sales, which is why such figures are generally treated as indicators of trajectory rather than definitive results.

The episode also reflects the information environment around OpenAI, the company behind the ChatGPT chatbot. As a privately held company, it does not publish earnings reports the way publicly listed firms do, so figures relayed through investor communications and media reports often shape outside views of its financial trajectory. OpenAI has also become one of the largest buyers of advanced AI chips, having entered multi-gigawatt supply partnerships with both Nvidia and AMD. Because of that scale of commitment, financial updates from the company are closely watched by investors in the semiconductor sector, which has drawn much of its recent momentum from spending on artificial intelligence data centers.

The gap between the disclosed run rate and the previously circulated figure underscores the uncertainty surrounding private companies' revenue estimates, which often spread through media reports and investor communications before any official disclosure. It also highlights the difference in provenance between the two numbers: the near-$50 billion figure came directly from OpenAI's communication with investors, while the $68 billion estimate was tied to valuation-era expectations that circulated widely in late September. Until a formal disclosure reconciles the two, the discrepancy illustrates how far market-circulated estimates can drift from the figures a company communicates directly.

This content was first published on COINOTAG: https://en.coinotag.com/openai-50b-annualized-revenue-nvidia-amd-selloff