OpenAI posts $5.7B in Q1 2026 revenue but shows adjusted operating margin of −122%

OpenAI reported approximately $5.7 billion in revenue for Q1 2026 but disclosed an adjusted operating margin of minus 122 percent, which the company’s adjusted presentation frames as losing $1.22 for every dollar of revenue; the published figures are dated May 22, 2026. The combination of a large top line and steep adjusted losses highlights the heavy cost structure behind the company’s rapid scaling. Company executives and the published coverage attribute the quarter’s revenue growth to the Codex coding agent, expanding enterprise sales and early advertising experiments inside ChatGPT. The $5.7 billion top line was reported as roughly $1 billion higher than Anthropic’s quarterly take in the same coverage.

OpenAI’s adjusted results explicitly strip out large items such as stock‑based compensation when reporting margin metrics, an approach intended to separate equity‑linked and other non‑cash charges from recurring operating costs. That adjusted framing is the basis for the −122 percent operating margin reported on May 22, 2026. The same reporting contrasts OpenAI’s scale with Anthropic’s on an annualized basis: Anthropic’s annualized revenue was reported near $45 billion versus roughly $30 billion for OpenAI on the same basis. Anthropic reportedly expects close to $11 billion in Q2 revenue and about $600 million in operating profit, figures that underscore a divergence in near‑term unit economics between the two firms.

That divergence sharpens the competitive picture: two of the largest frontier AI companies are scaling rapidly but showing different margin trajectories. For developers and enterprise buyers, those differences can affect API pricing, feature availability and contract terms because vendor margins influence investment in model runtimes, support and pricing strategies. Investors and market observers are also watching both companies as potential IPO candidates beginning in Q4.

User scale remains a central input to monetization and cost dynamics. ChatGPT averaged about 905 million weekly users in the quarter, short of a one‑billion target cited in the coverage, and the company’s mix of revenue — coding agents like Codex, enterprise agreements and nascent ad tests — will be central to any path toward improved margins disclosed in upcoming filings and earnings commentary.