Anthropic and openai's revenue gap: a closer look

Anthropic is set to surpass $65 billion in annualized revenue this year, while OpenAI aims for over $40 billion, according to recent updates. Francine McKenna, an accounting professor and author of The Dig, explains that the difference in revenue reporting stems from how each company accounts for sales through cloud partners. Anthropic records the full value of Claude sales through its partners as revenue, while OpenAI only counts the portion it retains from such transactions. This discrepancy means the $25 billion gap cannot be fully explained by accounting practices alone. Investors are anticipated to gain clarity on Anthropic's revenue methodology through its upcoming IPO filing. Despite the accounting differences, neither approach is considered inherently incorrect. The contrast in revenue figures highlights potential differences in growth rates between the two AI labs.