Rarely has a month gone by in 2025 without OpenAI signing another multi-billion-dollar data center deal. In a lengthy post on X on Thursday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly clarified the totals.
“We expect to end this year above $20 billion in annualized revenue run rate and grow to hundreds of billion [sic] by 2030. We are looking at commitments of about $1.4 trillion over the next 8 years,” he wrote.
While the post was largely a response to a brouhaha over comments his CFO made, and quickly walked back, concerning government-backstopped loans, Altman also listed a number of future business plans he believes will generate significant revenue.
He said OpenAI has an upcoming enterprise offering. Earlier this week, OpenAI said it already had a million business customers.
He named consumer devices and robotics. In May, OpenAI acquired Jony Ive’s io, and they are reportedly working on a palm-sized AI device.
Altman mentioned scientific discovery as an upcoming business. Not much is known about it yet, except that OpenAI VP Kevin Weil mentioned a newly launched OpenAI for Science some months ago.
Altman also said OpenAI could become a cloud computing provider: “We are also looking at ways to more directly sell compute capacity to other companies (and people); we are pretty sure the world is going to need a lot of ‘AI cloud’, and we are excited to offer this.”
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
October 13-15, 2026
That’s a bold idea for a company that doesn’t yet have its own network of data centers.
Beyond revenue, Altman noted that the company may also pay for its needs the old-fashioned way: selling more equity or taking on more loans.
