Sam Altman stated on the social platform X on Thursday that in the past month, OpenAI has added over $1 billion in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) from its application programming interface (API) business alone.
The OpenAI Chief Executive wrote: "When people mention us, they mostly only think of ChatGPT, but in reality, our API team has been consistently delivering impressive results!"
OpenAI's API allows other businesses and developers to embed its models into their own products, covering a range from internal productivity software to programming tools.
Several high-profile startups in Silicon Valley use OpenAI's models as core infrastructure. For instance, the intelligent Q&A search engine Perplexity leverages OpenAI's models to power some of its features; Harvey, one of the fastest-growing legal tech startups, also builds its system on OpenAI's models to support lawyers in research and document drafting.
Although OpenAI is facing significant cost pressures from computing power and data centers, Altman's remarks highlight that its infrastructure business has gradually evolved into a key growth engine.
These pressures are forcing OpenAI to look beyond consumer subscription services.
Last week, the company announced it is preparing to test advertising features within ChatGPT. Over the next few years, OpenAI has spending commitments amounting to a staggering $1.4 trillion.
For a company that once considered advertising taboo, this move represents a significant shift. Less than two years ago, Altman described advertising as a "last resort."
In May 2024, during an event at Harvard University, Altman stated: "The combination of advertising and AI, in my view, has an indescribable dissonance. When it comes to business model choices, I've always believed that advertising is the least desirable option for us."
Since then, Altman's stance has become more open. In June of the same year, he mentioned on OpenAI's podcast that he is not "completely opposed" to advertising but emphasized that any exploration must proceed cautiously.
Earlier this week, OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar proposed the concept of "model licensing partnerships" – where if a client achieves success with a product developed using OpenAI-licensed technology, the company could share in the downstream sales revenue.
In an episode of "The OpenAI Podcast" released this Monday, Friar gave an example: "Take the field of drug discovery, for instance. Suppose we license our technology to a client, and they achieve a technological breakthrough, leading to a successful drug launch. At that point, we could receive a corresponding percentage of licensing fees from all sales revenue of that drug, according to the agreement.
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