Because to ChatGPT’s widespread use, OpenAI is estimated by private investors to be worth $86 billion. If you’re searching for the latest official revenue figure for the rapidly growing artificial intelligence startup, all you’ll find is a meagre $44,485 for the previous year.
This information is taken from the nonprofit parent’s Internal Revenue Service Form 990, which is required to be submitted by organisations in order to keep their tax-exempt status. The file was provided by OpenAI with CNBC, and it was made public last week on the website PlainSite.
For nonprofit organisations, audited financial statements are not required by federal regulations. OpenAI was able to avoid filing audited financials for 2022 in its home state of California since the foundation’s stated revenue fell below the $2 million reporting threshold. When OpenAI last submitted a state revenue report, it was for $33.2 million, which is more than 700 times the amount the foundation declared for 2022.
OpenAI claims to be transparent, yet its finances are still a mystery. Originally founded in 2015 as a nonprofit, OpenAI became a capped-profit corporation in 2019 and was able to raise billions of dollars in outside capital and acquire characteristics of a tech startup, like offering employee stock. The company’s for-profit division went on to create ChatGPT, the chatbot that sparked the generative AI revolution and went viral towards the end of last year.
The Information revealed in August that OpenAI made $28 million in income the previous year and is expected to reach $1 billion in 2023 due to improvements made to its models and the increase in popularity of ChatGPT.
Source (CNBC)
