A report on OpenAI revenue hit chip stocks. Here is what it said.

The Financial Times reported on Thursday that OpenAI's annualised revenue is about $20 billion less than had been signalled before. The report, based on financial documents shared with investors, said the gap is likely to damp optimism about the growth of AI demand.

Reported by TechCrunch, citing the FT. Not independently confirmed by Ticker Den. TechCrunch wrote that a figure near $70 billion had circulated about a week earlier, and that OpenAI has reportedly told investors its annualised revenue is "approaching $50 billion." Per TechCrunch, the FT said the $70 billion number came from investors' own attempts to compare OpenAI with rival Anthropic. TechCrunch also reported that the two companies count annualised revenue differently: Anthropic includes sales made by its cloud partners, and OpenAI does not. We could not find a second outlet carrying these details.

How markets reacted

The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.25% on the day, the biggest loss of the major indexes. Technology stocks led the declines. CNBC reported Oracle down more than 5% and chipmakers including Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices lower in midday trading.

What this does and does not show

Annualised revenue is a run rate: a recent period's sales scaled up to a year. It is not reported revenue and it is not profit. A lower run rate does not say how fast OpenAI is growing or what it will earn. It does matter to markets because large chip and data-center spending plans are built partly on expectations for AI demand.

TechCrunch said it had asked OpenAI for comment; its article did not include a response.