OpenAI will find itself on an electric journey in 2024 and probably in 2025 as well. On one hand, they see huge growth, with $2.7 billion just going to ChatGPT and a total revenue of $3.7 billion for the year, why am I not surprised , hahah. But the kicker this year is that they expect an unbelievable $5 billion loss. How? Well, just lean heavily on Microsoft cloud services for computing power, and you then get creative with your bills, the numbers add up and I'm shocked it ain't more than this.
Regardless, momentum keeps building for the company. Just a couple of months ago, in August 2024, their revenue was up to $300 million a month, and thisnof course I got from websites online, just search it on Google. This I think is a huge upward leap from earlier in the year. Their upper brass is confident this growth is poised for more expansion, with estimates of $11.6 billion in revenue by 2025, skyrocketing their goal to very bizarre-high numbers of $100 billion by 2029. Ambitious, right?
A plan they seem to be riding on is their ChatGPT subscription hike. So, if you're one of those collars forking over $20 per month at the moment, hold your horses because, by the end of the year, that might go up to $22, while in five years, you might be seeing $44 on your bill. Not a small price for gpt, it better be useful enough to make people more otherwise they ain't getting people involved, but the company seems sure users will stay around.
And they are ramping up for a great fundraising campaign, expecting to pull in $7 billion, sending the company's valuation way to the top at $150 billion. And with players like Tiger Global and Thrive Capital prowling the waters, they could pull this off. If they don't pull this off, at least what they'll manage to take will be close. It's no surprise because AI is a big money business.
Interestingly, the evolution of OpenAI from a non-profit to a for-profit business is stirring suspicions internally. Their CTO recently quit, and they were said to be actively sharing a 7 percent equity stake with Sam Altman. Some of these changes give rise to hints of a larger rethink in strategy at the company, but they remain absolutely dedicated to their core efforts in AI.
I personally think if you make AI too expensive at the beginning, many will be discouraged for using it and perhaps, some company somewhere will manage to do the same job but for free and grab all the users because only few want to pay for apps, websites and online digital assets.