Annual Revenue Reaches ₩13.55 Trillion in 2 Years…ChatGPT Powers OpenAI’s Rapid Growth

In just about two and a half years since the launch of its AI chatbot ChatGPT, OpenAI has surpassed annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $10 billion (around ₩13.552 trillion).

After U.S. business outlets CNBC and Reuters reported the news on the 9th (local time), OpenAI clarified that the $10 billion ARR figure excludes licensing revenue from its largest investor, Microsoft (MS), as well as large one-off contracts.

ARR refers to the revenue a company expects to earn from subscription contracts over a 12-month period. It is used as a key metric to indicate annual revenue in subscription-based businesses. OpenAI’s ARR includes revenue from ChatGPT’s consumer paid services and enterprise services, among others.

As of December last year, OpenAI’s ARR was $5.5 billion (about ₩7.454 trillion). In just six months, revenue nearly doubled. Industry sources attribute OpenAI’s explosive growth to the rapid expansion of ChatGPT’s user base.

OpenAI first launched ChatGPT at the end of 2022, and introduced an enterprise service the following year. According to OpenAI, as of the beginning of this month, it had secured 3 million companies as paid customers—a figure up by 1 million from 2 million in February. As of the end of March, ChatGPT had over 500 million weekly active users.

With the increase in ChatGPT users, revenue growth is also expected. Citing anonymous sources, CNBC reported that OpenAI is aiming for $125 billion (about ₩169.4 trillion) in revenue by 2029.

Soyeon Kim, Hankyung.com Reporter sue123@hankyung.com