“There seems to be little concern — or belief — that there is any kind of risk at the heart of OpenAI, a company that spent $9 billion in 2024 to lose $5 billion.”
Our reading, the sentence that was checked:
OpenAI spent $9 billion in 2024 and lost $5 billion.
Assessment: Unresolved Evidence as of
Where and when Ed Zitron wrote it
Where's Your Ed At, Reality Check, paragraph 5.
- Said
- Source observed
- live page, full text, public
- Evidence as of
- the cutoff for this assessment
- Assessment recorded
- assessment wyea-reality-check-e032ea-a2
We recorded 20 claims from this post. See every claim from this post.
The wording above is the version this site observed on 2026-10-28. The source may have been edited after 2025-04-28. This page does not claim the wording was captured then.
What the claim commits to
- Kind
- Observation
- Deadline, as the speaker wrote it
- None stated. This site does not add one.
- Deadline state when assessed
- No horizon
- Deadline state on 2026-10-29
- No horizon (the release’s reference date)
From the speaker
- OpenAI
- spent $9 billion in 2024
- lose $5 billion
Our interpretation
- Assess the financial assertion, not the surrounding opinion about concern or risk.
- Read the amounts as rounded to the nearest billion dollars.
- The context relies on press reporting, so the claimed accounting basis is estimate.
- Both spending and losses must describe completed calendar-year 2024 results. A forecast published during 2024 does not establish those results.
- The wording does not specify whether spending includes noncash expenses or whether loss means consolidated net loss or loss attributable to OpenAI.
Counts as supported if: Comparable retrospective evidence establishes approximately $9 billion of spending and approximately $5 billion of losses in calendar 2024 on the basis underlying the reported estimates.
Counts as contradicted if: Comparable retrospective evidence establishes that either amount falls outside its nearest-billion rounding interval on that same basis.
Retrospective: these criteria were written after the outcome was public.
Current assessment
Was it true for the period described?
Outcome: Unresolved
The record was checked, and the evidence available by the cutoff does not settle it.
Scored on a plain reading. The speaker named no measure for this claim, so it was judged on the reading an informed reader would take, stated below under our interpretation. Both reviews had to find that reading fair.
- Evidence as of
- Deadline state when assessed
- No horizon
- Assessment recorded
- Policy version
- 2026-10-28.7
Rationale
On September 27, 2024, CNBC reported an expected 2024 loss of about $5 billion on expected revenue of $3.7 billion, not completed-year results [e1]. Reporting published June 16, 2026 gives a 2024 net loss just over $5 billion and total costs and expenses of $12.48 billion [e2, e3]. The later loss figure is numerically close to the claim, while total accounting expenses exceed $9 billion [e2, e3]. These reports do not reconcile the later measures to the basis of the claimed estimates, leaving both amounts unresolved under the contract's same-basis requirement [e1, e2, e3].
Limitations
- The evidence does not establish completed-year spending on the basis underlying the $9 billion estimate.
- The later net-loss figure is not reconciled to the earlier estimate's accounting treatment.
- Total accounting expenses do not by themselves establish cash spending.
Evidence (3 items)
Context only: CNBC,
OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, expects about $5 billion in losses on $3.7 billion in revenue this year, CNBC has confirmed.
Why it matters here: These were expectations, not completed-year results. The article also says the underlying costs excluded equity compensation and other expenses, preventing a direct comparison with total accounting expenses.
- Publisher
- CNBC
- Kind of source
- News report
- Measures
- OpenAI, Forecast annual loss and revenue, USD billions, estimate, 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31
- Describes events of
- Public from
Context only: Ars Technica,
Operating numbers aside, OpenAI’s headline “net loss” number of just over $5 billion in 2024 ballooned to nearly $39 billion in 2025.
Why it matters here: The retrospective net-loss figure agrees numerically with the loss portion. It comes from audited statements, however, and does not reconcile that accounting presentation with the earlier expense-excluding estimate.
- Publisher
- Ars Technica
- Kind of source
- News report, audited
- Measures
- OpenAI, Reported net loss, USD billions, company reported, 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31
- Describes events of
- Public from
Context only: Fortune,
OpenAI’s financial statements show steepening losses at the company, according to copies obtained by blogger Ed Zitron and the Financial Times.
Why it matters here: The accompanying comparison reports $12.48 billion of 2024 total costs and expenses. That challenges an all-expenses reading of $9 billion, but accounting expenses cannot automatically replace the earlier spending estimate.
- Publisher
- Fortune
- Kind of source
- News report
- Measures
- OpenAI, Total costs and expenses, USD billions, company reported, 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31
- Describes events of
- Public from
What would settle it
Completed-calendar-year 2024 financial records and a reconciliation identifying the spending and loss measures, included expenses and ownership allocations, sufficient to compare both amounts with the claimed estimates on the same basis.
Where it was said (1)
Said once in the sources this register covers.
: Where's Your Ed At, Reality Check
There seems to be little concern — or belief — that there is any kind of risk at the heart of OpenAI, a company that spent $9 billion in 2024 to lose $5 billion.
- Where
- paragraph 5
- Published
- 2025-04-28
- Source observed
- , live page
- Access
- full text, public
History
Assessment versions
- Assessment wyea-reality-check-e032ea-a2: Current. Outcome: Unresolved. Evidence as of 2026-10-28. Public date not recorded.
Recorded events
Assessment publishedBy this site
First assessment published after both reviews and the final-text check passed.
HeldBy this site
The final-text check failed: rationale_supported_by_evidence; overclaims: The familiar figures originated in forecasts that excluded some expenses. | The two amounts cannot be safely reconstructed by adding revenue to attributable net loss..
About assessment wyea-reality-check-e032ea-a1, which was not published.