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OpenAI has set an aggressive growth target for the end of the decade. A person familiar with the company’s plans said OpenAI expects revenue to exceed $280 billion by 2030, driven by rising demand for its paid AI products and services.
The projection comes as OpenAI pushes to scale subscription revenue from consumers and businesses while managing the high cost of chips, data centers, and technical talent.
OpenAI’s revenue outlook reflects momentum in paid subscriptions for its AI software across consumer and business offerings. The company has focused on expanding usage while converting more users into paying customers.
OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar said the company’s annualized revenue topped $20 billion in 2025, up from roughly $6 billion the year before. The comments highlight how quickly OpenAI has increased monetization since rolling out products for both individual and enterprise customers.
OpenAI has not provided a public line-by-line breakdown behind the $280 billion target. Even so, the figure signals expectations of continued growth in recurring revenue, including larger enterprise contracts and broader adoption of AI tools inside workplaces.
The company has also begun testing advertising for some users, which adds a potential revenue stream alongside subscriptions. OpenAI has not disclosed revenue expectations from ads or a timeline for a wider release.
OpenAI has begun testing ads in ChatGPT for a limited set of users. The test gives the company another way to earn revenue from high usage, including from users who use the service without a paid plan.
OpenAI has framed the ad test as an added revenue stream alongside subscriptions. The company still focuses on paid tiers for advanced features used by consumers and businesses, while ads can contribute additional income as overall usage grows.
OpenAI has not released detailed public guidelines about how ads appear, what targeting rules apply, or how it plans to separate advertising from model outputs. The test nonetheless signals a broader push to diversify revenue as costs rise across the AI industry.
The company’s strategy reflects a wider market reality, including large AI models that require ongoing compute spending for both training and daily inference, and companies increasingly seek multiple revenue levers to support those expenses.
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OpenAI has emphasized that growth depends on sustained investment in infrastructure. The company previously said it has committed to spending more than $1.4 trillion on AI infrastructure in the coming years.
A person familiar with the matter said OpenAI now tells investors it plans to spend about $600 billion by 2030, aligning projected spending more directly with expected revenue growth. The estimate underscores the scale of investment OpenAI expects to maintain as it expands product capacity.
OpenAI is also nearing the first phase of a new funding round that could raise more than $100 billion. The company’s valuation, including the eventual funding, could exceed $850 billion.
