Anthropic's Revenue Appears Higher Than OpenAI's Due to Accounting Differences
Anthropic is projected to report annualized revenue exceeding $65 billion, surpassing OpenAI’s expected figure of over $40 billion. The discrepancy stems from differences in how each company accounts for sales through cloud partners like Microsoft. Anthropic records the full value of these transactions as top-line revenue and lists the partner's cut as an expense, while OpenAI reports only its share. The accounting methods reflect differing views on who controls client relationships: Anthropic sees itself as the principal in such deals, allowing it to report gross figures, whereas OpenAI treats itself more like a service provider with net reporting. Experts note that both approaches are acceptable under U.S. GAAP but can lead to misleading comparisons. While accounting differences explain part of the revenue gap, they do not fully account for Anthropic’s $25 billion advantage over OpenAI. Analysts will be watching Anthropic's upcoming IPO filing and SEC communications to better understand its financial practices.
Tickers: $MSFT
Topics: AI Anthropic vs OpenAI IPO preparation revenue accounting