Newly leaked financial documents reveal the staggering cost of building artificial intelligence at scale — and raise big questions about OpenAI's upcoming public listing.
OpenAI burned through $3.7 billion in the first quarter of 2026, according to documents the company shared with shareholders and obtained by The Information. That's more than half of its $5.7 billion in quarterly revenue, painting a sobering picture of a company burning cash even as it prepares for what could be the biggest IPO in tech history.
The findings come just weeks after OpenAI confidentially filed its S-1 with the SEC, setting the stage for a public listing that sources say could arrive as early as September 2026. Investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase, are reportedly leading the underwriting, with a valuation target of up to $1 trillion.
By the Numbers: OpenAI's Spending Problem
While $5.7 billion in quarterly revenue is impressive for a company that barely existed a few years ago, the spending side tells a different story. The $3.7 billion Q1 burn rate implies OpenAI could lose over $14 billion in 2026 alone — and that might be optimistic.
Leaked 2025 financial data, obtained by blogger Ed Zitron and the Financial Times, shows just how deep the losses run:
2025 revenue: $13.07 billion (up from $3.7 billion in 2024)
2025 total costs: ~$34 billion
2025 operating loss: ~$20.9 billion
R&D spending: $19.18 billion (largest expense)
Cost of revenue: $7.5 billion
Sales and marketing: $5.73 billion
The company also faces a staggering $665 billion in computing spending commitments through 2030, largely tied to data center deals with Microsoft and other infrastructure partners.
A Tale of Two Efficiency Trends
There's a silver lining buried in the numbers. OpenAI's spend-to-revenue ratio improved from $2.37 spent per dollar of revenue in 2024 to $1.60 in 2025 — a 32% improvement in capital efficiency. Revenue grew 253% year-over-year, while costs grew "only" 172%. The company is getting more efficient, just not fast enough to reach profitability before its IPO.
This matters because institutional investors will scrutinize OpenAI's path to profitability harder than any startup in recent memory. With rivals like Anthropic (which filed its own S-1 a week before OpenAI) and Google's DeepMind pouring resources into competing models, the pressure to show a sustainable business model is intense.
The Bigger AI Spending Race
OpenAI isn't alone in burning cash. The AI arms race has turned into a spending war, with every major player racing to build bigger models, larger data centers, and more capable agents. But OpenAI's figures are notable because they come as the company tries to convince public market investors that it can be a viable long-term business.
Earlier this month, the company confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO that could value the ChatGPT maker at up to $1 trillion. If it goes through, it would be one of the largest tech IPOs in history — eclipsed only by SpaceX's record-shattering $85 billion IPO last week.
The contrast between those two companies is stark. SpaceX just announced a $60 billion acquisition of AI coding startup Cursor days after going public, using its newly-raised capital to expand. OpenAI, meanwhile, is spending billions just to keep its lead in the AI race.
What This Means for Investors
For retail investors hoping to get a piece of the OpenAI IPO, the leaked numbers are a double-edged sword. On one hand, the company's revenue growth is exceptional — from $3.7 billion in all of 2024 to $5.7 billion in a single quarter of 2026. On the other, $3.7 billion in quarterly losses means the company is spending at a rate that would exhaust most startups in months.
OpenAI has deep-pocketed backers — Microsoft alone has invested over $13 billion — but public markets are less forgiving of prolonged losses. The company is betting that its next-generation models, including GPT-6, will drive enough new revenue to close the gap before investor patience runs out.
But with ChatGPT's market share recently slipping below 50% for the first time, the competitive pressure is real. Smaller, cheaper models from rivals and open-source alternatives are eroding the moat that once seemed unassailable.
Bottom Line
OpenAI's Q1 2026 financials reveal a company at a crossroads. The revenue story is remarkable — one of the fastest growth trajectories in tech history. But the spending story is equally historic. Whether the $1 trillion IPO valuation is justified depends on which side of the ledger you're betting on.
One thing is clear: the AI industry's spending spree is far from over, and OpenAI is leading the charge.
