Report on OpenAI shakes Wall Street: chip stocks plunge

A Financial Times report on OpenAI's September revenue, which is about $20 billion lower than previous estimates, is dragging down chip stocks on Wall Street. Nvidia falls about 3%, AMD and Intel drop 4.5% and 6% respectively, and the SOXX semiconductor index plunges more than 4%. The discrepancy stems in part from differences in calculating annualized revenue run rate compared to Anthropic.

A Financial Times report on OpenAI's revenue is shaking Wall Street and leading to sharp declines in chip stocks. According to the report, based on documents presented to investors, the company's annualized revenue run rate at the end of September stood at about $50 billion – $20 billion lower than previous estimates of about $70 billion. The gap has raised concerns among investors about the ability of AI companies to justify massive investments in infrastructure and chips. The confusion stemmed in part from the different way OpenAI and Anthropic calculate their annualized revenue run rates. Anthropic includes revenue from cloud partnerships with AWS and Google Cloud in its calculation, while OpenAI presents data differently. Based on adjustments made by investors, initial estimates indicated an annualized revenue run rate of about $40 billion in July, and later about $70 billion in September. The new data points to a run rate of about $30 billion in July and about $50 billion in September. The report is weighing on tech stocks: the Nasdaq falls up to 1.5%, the SOXX semiconductor index plunges more than 4%. Nvidia's stock weakens by about 3%, AMD and Intel fall by about 4.5% and 6% respectively. Memory stocks SanDisk and Micron also plunge by about 5%.