Azernews.Az

by Alimat Aliyeva

By the end of 2025, American artificial intelligence company OpenAI reported a net loss of $38.5 billion, nearly eight times higher than the previous year, reflecting the enormous costs associated with developing and scaling advanced AI technologies, AzerNEWS reports.

According to the company's financial statements, OpenAI's revenue grew significantly, reaching $13.07 billion in 2025 compared to $3.7 billion a year earlier. Despite this rapid growth, expenses continued to rise at an even faster pace.

Research and development spending increased from $7.81 billion in 2024 to $19.18 billion in 2025, driven by investments in next-generation AI models, computing infrastructure, and product development. Marketing expenses also expanded sharply, rising more than fivefold to $5.73 billion.

Overall, the company's total expenses reached approximately $34 billion, while operating losses amounted to $20.92 billion. The initial loss estimate exceeded $60 billion, but a portion of these losses was allocated to non-controlling shareholders, reducing the final net loss to $38.53 billion.

The financial reports also revealed that Japanese investment giant SoftBank Group paid OpenAI approximately $867 million for services during 2025, while payments from Microsoft totaled $303 million.

At the same time, OpenAI spent around $10.6 billion on research and development services provided by Microsoft, largely related to the use of the partner's cloud and computing infrastructure for training AI models. By the end of the year, OpenAI's outstanding obligations to Microsoft stood at $3.64 billion.

As of December 2025, OpenAI's total assets were valued at roughly $50 billion, with nearly half held in cash and cash equivalents, providing the company with substantial liquidity despite its growing losses.

Industry analysts note that the sharp increase in losses alongside rapidly rising revenue highlights a broader trend across the AI sector: companies are investing unprecedented amounts in computing power, data centers, and model training in pursuit of technological leadership. Some experts compare the current AI race to the early days of the internet boom, when massive upfront investments were required before long-term profitability could be achieved.