OpenAI Achieves 70% Compute Margin Breakthrough Amid Enterprise Expansion Drive

News Summary

OpenAI has achieved a remarkable surge in operational efficiency, with compute profit margins reaching 70% as of October 2025, more than doubling from January 2024 levels. The ChatGPT creator demonstrates growing commercial viability despite remaining unprofitable overall, as enterprise adoption accelerates and revenue approaches $13 billion annualized.

San Francisco, December 21, 2025 (EST) — OpenAI has significantly improved its profitability metrics in 2025, with internal compute margins reaching 70% by October, according to a report published by The Information on Saturday. The figure represents a dramatic increase from 52% at the end of 2024 and more than double the 35% margin recorded in January 2024.

The compute margin, a key internal metric, measures the share of revenue remaining after deducting costs associated with running AI models for paying corporate and consumer users. This improvement demonstrates OpenAI's enhanced ability to monetize its artificial intelligence services more efficiently while managing infrastructure expenses.

"The company improved its 'compute margin,' an internal figure measuring the share of revenue after the costs of running models for paying users of its corporate and consumer products," The Information reported, citing a person familiar with the figures. An OpenAI spokesperson declined to comment on the specific numbers but did not dispute the report.

Enterprise Growth Drives Efficiency Gains

The margin improvements coincide with OpenAI's aggressive expansion into enterprise markets. The company now serves over 2 million business users, up from 1 million earlier in the year. Major corporations including Amgen, Commonwealth Bank, Booking.com, Cisco, Lowe's, Morgan Stanley, T-Mobile, Target, and Thermo Fisher Scientific have integrated OpenAI's technology into their operations.

Revenue growth has been substantial, with annualized revenue estimated at $13 billion by July 2025, doubling from $6 billion in January and tripling from $4 billion in 2024. The company disclosed first-half 2025 revenue of approximately $4.3 billion.

Weekly active users grew to 800 million in October 2025, up from 700 million in July and 500 million in March. Paying business users surpassed 5 million, up from 3 million in June, reflecting strong adoption of premium services.

Profitability Remains Elusive

Despite impressive efficiency gains, OpenAI has not achieved overall profitability. The company reported approximately $2.5 billion in losses during the first half of 2025, primarily driven by substantial research and development investments totaling $6.7 billion and nearly $2.5 billion in stock compensation expenses.

The company's cash burn rate remains high at approximately 70% of revenue, with projected cash burn of around $9 billion in 2025 on $13 billion in sales. However, OpenAI projects its gross profit margin will improve from 48% in 2025 to 70% by 2029, reflecting increasing operational efficiency.

Competitive Pressures Intensify

These financial developments occur against intensifying competition in the artificial intelligence sector. Following strong benchmark performance by Google's Gemini model, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly declared a "code red" internally, redirecting resources toward ChatGPT improvements and delaying plans for an advertising service.

According to The Information's report, OpenAI maintains better compute margins than competitor Anthropic for paid accounts, though Anthropic demonstrates superior overall server spending efficiency. The margin improvements have been achieved through optimized infrastructure usage, better memory bandwidth utilization, and more efficient GPU deployment.

Strategic Outlook and Funding

OpenAI continues pursuing ambitious growth targets, projecting revenue could reach $200 billion by 2030, though compute and technical talent costs are expected to consume approximately 75% of total revenue during that period.

The company is also in early talks to raise at least $10 billion from Amazon.com Inc., potentially valuing the firm north of $500 billion following its October 2025 valuation of $500 billion. The potential deal would involve OpenAI using Amazon's chips for its computing infrastructure.

Most ChatGPT usage remains on the free tier, driving OpenAI's strategic focus on expanding its business version and paid software features for industries such as financial services and education, where it competes directly with Google and Anthropic.

Industry analysts suggest the compute margin improvements, comparable to or exceeding mature SaaS products, indicate that OpenAI's core AI service cash flow engine has achieved strong momentum. This marks a significant transition from a research-focused organization burning capital to a more commercially viable enterprise, even as it maintains substantial investments in advancing artificial intelligence capabilities including the Sora video generation platform and global data center construction.

The improved operational efficiency signals OpenAI's evolution toward sustainable profitability while maintaining its position at the forefront of artificial intelligence development and commercialization.