OpenAI's exponential growth

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is expanding at lightning speed. In the first half of 2025, it made about $4.3 billion in sales, which is more than it earned in all of 2024. In the same period, they spent around $6.7 billion on R&D.

Currently, the company is generating over $1 billion every month, which puts it on track to hit sales of around $13 billion for the year. It's also spending big, with around $8.5 billion expected in capex this year, a relatively small amount compared to the $115 billion it projects it will burn through from now to 2029.

OpenAI has a huge cash cushion of $17.5 billion and fresh funding on the way, so it isn't in danger of running out of money. The company is now valued at roughly $500 billion, almost double what it was at the start of the year.

The company is aiming to grow from a popular chatbot into a fully-fledged business, making hundreds of billions in revenue by the end of the decade.