Skip to content
News Funding & M&A

Financial Times audit review confirms OpenAI paid Microsoft $17B in 2025, more than its full-year revenue

· by Pondero Newsdesk

The short version

The Financial Times independently reviewed OpenAI's audited 2025 financial statements and confirmed a $38.5B net loss and $17.2B in payments to Microsoft Azure, a figure that exceeded the company's total annual revenue of $13.07B.

Financial Times audit review confirms OpenAI paid Microsoft $17B in 2025, more than its full-year revenue

In June 2026, the Financial Times reviewed OpenAI's audited 2025 financial statements and confirmed a net loss of $38.5 billion alongside $17.2 billion in total payments to Microsoft. That Microsoft figure exceeds OpenAI's full-year revenue of $13.07 billion, according to the audited documents.

What the FT audit review found

Reported on June 15 and 16, the FT's independent review confirmed the key figures from the audited statements. OpenAI generated $13.07 billion in revenue in 2025 and recorded a net loss attributable to the company of $38.53 billion, per reporting on the audited documents.

On the Microsoft side, $17.2 billion broke across four audited line items: $10.59 billion classified as research and development expense (covering model training on Azure), $6.047 billion as cost of revenue, $527 million in sales and marketing, and $42 million in general and administrative costs.

At $20.92 billion, the operating loss is itself large. But the headline net loss of $38.53 billion runs well above it because of a $41.55 billion non-cash charge OpenAI recorded in 2025 related to changes in the fair value of convertible interests and warrant liabilities. That charge was triggered by the company's nonprofit-to-for-profit conversion, completed October 28, 2025. Roughly $30 billion of the net loss traces to that one-time accounting event rather than recurring cash burn, per Benzinga's analysis of the documents.

Why it matters

For prospective public investors, the $17.2 billion Microsoft figure is the structural data point that warrants scrutiny. Microsoft paid OpenAI only $303 million during the same year, making the relationship strikingly one-directional. At 2025 rates, OpenAI directed more than 130% of its annual revenue back to Microsoft for compute access. Whether OpenAI can renegotiate those terms, shift workloads to owned infrastructure, or grow revenue fast enough to shrink the ratio is a question an eventual S-1 filing will need to answer.

Independent verification by the FT also carries separate significance. OpenAI has not filed a public S-1 with the SEC. A confidential submission went in during late March 2026, following the $40 billion SoftBank-led funding round at a $300 billion post-money valuation. Until a public filing lands, audited financials confirmed by a tier-1 financial press outlet are the strongest form of public disclosure available. That FT verification adds credibility the original newsletter publication alone did not provide.

Analysts modeling OpenAI's path to profitability will also need to disaggregate the loss figures. Headline net loss of $38.53 billion includes the one-time restructuring charge. Strip that out and the underlying operating loss of $20.92 billion, against $13.07 billion in revenue, describes a business spending roughly $1.60 on operations for every $1.00 it earns. That ratio, not the headline figure, is what recurs quarter to quarter.

What to watch next

Public filing of the S-1 registration statement will be the first moment OpenAI certifies its financials under SEC rules and must formally disclose the Microsoft relationship as a material concentration risk. Altman has said the company expects to file publicly within 12 months of the confidential submission, pointing toward late summer or fall of 2026. Investors will watch whether the 2026 annualized revenue run rate shows improvement relative to the Azure spend before that document lands.

Sources