Summary

Ed Zitron reports, based on audited financial documents independently verified by the Financial Times, that OpenAI's net loss attributable to the company ballooned from $5.09 billion in 2024 to $38.53 billion in 2025, with total costs and expenses hitting $34 billion against just $13.07 billion in revenue. He walks through the raw figures with minimal editorializing, noting OpenAI lowered its true ~$60 billion net loss by reclassifying over $21 billion as losses attributable to noncontrolling members and redeemable interests, a maneuver he says he doesn't fully understand. The piece also details OpenAI's deep financial entanglement with Microsoft, to whom it paid $17.2 billion in 2025, including $10.59 billion for model training. Zitron concludes the company's financial condition is deeply concerning and questions whether any path to profitability exists. He frames the numbers themselves as the story, promising deeper follow-up reporting.

Key Insight

Audited financials show OpenAI's losses exploding nearly eightfold to $38.5 billion in 2025, with no visible path to profitability and deep dependence on Microsoft.

Spicy Quotes (click to share)

• 3

  OpenAI lost around $38.5 billion in 2025.

• 3

  Due to the seriousness of this story, I am not going to do very much editorializing, as the numbers speak for themselves.

• 3

  OpenAI's financial statements tell the story of a company with incredible losses.

• 4

  It's unclear what this means, nor how OpenAI reconciled the removal of $3.74 billion in costs. I will not speculate further.

• 3

  The financial condition of OpenAI is deeply concerning.

• 4

  $38.53 billion in losses are astronomical, and far higher than most believed it would be.

• 5

  I'm not sure how this company finds a way toward any kind of sustainability or profitability.

• 2

  In total, OpenAI's expenses to Microsoft amounted to $17.2 billion.

Tone

restrained, factual, ominous