A look at OpenAI’s economics

Credit: Maryam Sicard

Or why OpenAI must pivot from being a consumer app to an enterprise leader — before competitors and market dynamics erode this opportunity.

OpenAI is one of the world’s most influential businesses — and one of the most confounding when analyzing its business model.

Founded in 2015 as a non-profit, OpenAI has dominated the global conversation around generative AI (genAI) since the first public release of ChatGPT two years ago. While still technically governed by a non-profit entity, OpenAI has a for-profit business (which limits returns that investors can earn) that is reportedly on track for $3.7 billion in revenue this year with forecasts of $11 billion for 2025.

OpenAI just raised another $6.5 billion round in September at a $157 billion valuation, bringing its total raised to $17.9 billion.

Meanwhile, the company is innovating at a furious pace, releasing its Strawberry — or OpenAI o1 — model in September, which taps into a powerful new genAI model that uses a reas…