OpenAI is on track to lose a staggering $14 billion in 2026, according to revised internal financial documents reported by the Wall Street Journal. The figure highlights the immense cost of training and running the world’s most advanced AI models.
The Scale of Spending
OpenAI plans to spend $32 billion on model training in 2026 alone, ballooning to around $65 billion in 2027. The company’s cash burn is forecast at $25 billion this year and $57 billion next year, with cumulative losses potentially reaching $143 billion by 2029.
Anthropic Faces Similar Pressures
OpenAI’s rival Anthropic is projecting to spend about $12 billion training models and another $7 billion running them in 2026. Both companies are increasingly viewed as capital-intensive infrastructure businesses rather than traditional software firms.
The Race for Capital
OpenAI is currently negotiating a funding round of more than $100 billion at a valuation of around $750 billion. The AI race has become a contest of balance sheets as much as models, with the winner likely determined by who can sustain the heaviest spending the longest.
Despite the eye-watering losses, OpenAI maintains it expects to turn profitable by 2030 — a timeline that many analysts view with skepticism given the accelerating cost trajectory.
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