AI startup Anthropic is projected to break even by 2028, fueled by steady enterprise client revenue, whereas OpenAI is expected to continue incurring significant operating losses until 2030 due to heavy investments in compute infrastructure. Financial documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal indicate that OpenAI's operating losses could reach US$74 billion in 2028, roughly three-quarters of its anticipated revenue, in contrast to Anthropic's target of profitability within the same timeframe.
Anthropic's business-to-business focus begins yielding results
While Anthropic initially trailed during the launch surge of ChatGPT, its emphasis on business-to-business applications has started to bear fruit. The company's Claude chatbot specializes in programming and business functions, with enterprise clients contributing approximately 80% of its revenue. By steering clear of costly developments in image and video generation, Anthropic maintains a more balanced growth strategy, linking revenue and expenses cautiously to avoid overspending.
OpenAI's aggressive expansion results in massive cash burn
OpenAI, on the other hand, is accelerating investments in custom chips and data centers to broaden its AI portfolio, offering large stock incentives to attract leading researchers. Its estimated cash burn rate through 2030 is about 14 times higher than that of Anthropic, necessitating continuous external financing to cover operational costs. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently stated on the social media platform X that infrastructure expenses over the next eight years could reach as high as US$1.4 trillion, sparking debate around funding sustainability. Nonetheless, Altman expressed confidence in a podcast interview that OpenAI would achieve annual revenues of US$100 billion by 2027.
Major cloud providers heavily involved in supporting both companies
This rivalry has significant implications for the major US cloud service providers that supply infrastructure for these AI startups. Microsoft, the largest cloud partner for OpenAI, revealed in filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it has committed US$13 billion in investments and disbursed US$11.6 billion by the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2026 (September 30, 2025). Microsoft's net income fell by US$3.1 billion post-tax during this period, suggesting that OpenAI's losses for the third quarter of 2025 alone exceeded US$11.5 billion.
Conversely, Amazon Web Services and Alphabet's Google are key cloud partners backing Anthropic, providing proprietary AI chip computing resources. AWS has pledged US$8 billion to Anthropic, while Google's investments total over US$3 billion, with both companies reportedly contemplating increased commitments to strengthen their influence over Anthropic's development and operations.
Article edited by Jerry Chen
