OpenAI's Q2 Was $6.7bn and a $12.3bn Loss. Anthropic Won't Say How It Calculated Its Profit.

OpenAI told investors its second-quarter revenue reached $6.7bn, up from $5.7bn in the first quarter — roughly 18% sequential growth — while its operating loss widened from $9.3bn to $12.3bn. The figures were leaked to the Wall Street Journal and reached open outlets late on 18 August.

The comparison everyone is making

Anthropic's same quarter was $11.6bn in revenue, growth of over 50%, and a $559m operating profit — described as its first. Set beside OpenAI's widening loss, the story writes itself: the revenue lead has flipped.

What the common telling gets wrong

The two profitability numbers are not established on the same basis, and one of them has no disclosed basis at all. Anthropic is private and under no obligation to explain its arithmetic — and, as the reporting notes, it did not reveal what method was used to calculate that operating profit. Putting "OpenAI loses $12.3bn, Anthropic turns a profit" in one sentence compares an audited-style loss line against a figure whose derivation is a company's choice to withhold.

A second error is arithmetic. Quarterly revenue is not a run rate. $6.7bn a quarter does not annualise to the "approaching $40bn" run rate OpenAI has been described as carrying, because a run rate annualises the most recent month while a quarter includes its slower earlier months. Multiplying by four gives $26.8bn and misstates the company in both directions depending on which claim is being checked.

A third: these are leaked private figures, not results. There is no S-1, no filing and no confirmation. "OpenAI reported" is false; "OpenAI told investors" is what happened.

What 18% actually means

Read as decline, 18% sequential is roughly 94% annualised — not a company shrinking. The story is relative: a competitor grew faster off a larger base in the same three months. That is a different claim from collapse, and the weaker one is the accurate one.

Why the number travels

Both labs are heading toward listings, and OpenAI's compute commitments are underwritten by forward revenue assumptions. The sequential growth rate is the figure that transmits from a private income statement into public equity prices at its suppliers.