OpenAI’s balance sheet remains the most mysterious—and consequential—in business

A combination of blogger Ed Zitron and the Financial Times reported that OpenAI’s 2025 financials look, well, pretty rough.

A few key (reported) numbers to turn over in your head:

In 2025, OpenAI’s revenue came out to $13.07 billion, up from $3.7 billion in 2024. That makes enough sense—ChatGPT, a consumer blockbuster, this month hit one billion global active monthly users. (The company was last valued at $852 billion.) More concerning are the company’s expenses and losses: In 2025, OpenAI’s total costs and expenses came out to a staggering $34 billion (up from $12.48 billion in 2024). Likewise, losses from operations reached $20.92 billion in 2025, up from $8.78 billion in 2024.

I’ll state the obvious: By any normal rules of accounting and expectations from giant companies, these numbers look bad. That’s especially true if you consider rival Anthropic, with its $965 billion valuation and annualized revenue run rate around $47 billion (losses and expenses remain distinctly unknown).

That said, I had a strange, underwhelmed reaction to these numbers. First, that’s perhaps partly because these are leaked and I’m paranoid: If I haven’t seen something with my own eyes—no matter how much I might respect others’ reporting—my first inclination is generally to reserve judgment. And in this case, an OpenAI IPO may very well be imminent and we will ultimately see the final versions of these financials in the coming months.

There’s still a lot of mystery here, because these numbers pose lots of questions about OpenAI’s public market prospects and future: What story exactly does the company hope to tell retail investors about the sustainability of its business? Is the plan to ride the hype? What don’t we even know to ask? My suspicion is that there are many more unknowns here.

In the end, my odd ennui looking at these figures could be chalked up to: I don’t think these numbers tell us anything we didn’t already know to be directionally true. OpenAI is a legendary cash furnace, funneling billions as they chase the dominance that first made them the signature company of the AI boom.

In short, OpenAI is spending wildly to try to win the game it created. The big thing we don’t know? Whether that will be a winning strategy.

SpaceX (officially) is buying Cursor… SpaceX has officially exercised its right to buy Cursor for $60 billion. It will be the largest acquisition of a venture-backed startup ever (assuming we don’t count the frankly strange xAI-SpaceX merger). Check out my story from our last magazine issue about Cursor’s rise, the “Cursor is dead” discourse, and the company’s CEO, Michael Truell.

See you tomorrow,

Allie Garfinkle
X: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com

Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here.

Joey Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter. Subscribe here.

VENTURE CAPITAL

– Enta San Francisco-based workspace security platform for AI-native enterprises, raised $100 million in seed funding. Decibel led the round and was joined by Sequoia, Crosspoint Capital Partners, Craft Ventures, Shield Capital, Happyand In-Q-Tel.

– Cellaresa South San Francisco-based integrated development and manufacturing organization (IDMO) for cell therapies, raised an additional $50 million in Series D funding from Prime Radiant Partners.

– Copy Automationa New York City-based industrial DevOps company, raised $26 million in a Series A extension. AE Ventures and Squad Ventures led the round and was joined by WHAT Venture Partners and existing investors Construct Capital, Lux Capital, Iron Spring Venturesand Renegade Partners.

– Traysaran Austin, Texas-based defense technology company focused on underground and sub-surface threat detection and protection, raised $25 million in seed funding. Silent Ventures led the round.

– Foundation Alloya Cambridge, Mass.-based metals company, raised $22 million in Series A funding. Voyager Ventures led the round and was joined by Trust Ventures. Yamaha Motor Ventures, America’s Frontier Fund, Overlap Holdingsand others.

– Aston Powera Raleigh, N.C.-based power company for data centers, raised $20 million in funding. TDK Ventures and Building Ventures led the round and were joined by JLL Spark Global Ventures and others.

– Limitless Labsa Tel Aviv, Israel and Oradell, N.J.-based agentic physical AI platform for computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Dell Technologies Capital and Square Peg led the round and were joined by Grove Ventures, There is Capitaland Kinetica.

– Thena Singapore and San Francisco-based ‘physics‑first’ AI drug discovery company focused on age‑related diseases and the biology of aging, raised $17 million in funding. Melnichek Investments led the round and was joined by others.

– Rocapinea Paris, France-based AI-native wellness venture studio, raised $13 million in Series A funding. Educapital led the round and was joined by Daphne, Ring Capital, Centre Court Capitaland others.

– Magnitudea San Francisco-based developer of an AI ‘workforce’ platform that automates third‑party risk assessments and monitoring for enterprises, raised $10 million in seed funding. Ballistic Ventures led the round.

– eMablera Helsinki, Finland-based electric vehicle charging platform, raised €5.5 million ($6.4 million) in Series A funding. Greencode Ventures led the round and was joined by Swiss Post Ventures, Rethink Venturesand Helkama Real estate.

– Tenet Securitya New York City-based cybersecurity startup that builds tools to secure autonomous AI agents and agentic workflows against data exfiltration and misuse, raised $6 million in seed funding. The Westly Group and MizMaa Ventures led the round.

PRIVATE EQUITY

– Nuveibacked by Advent Internationalagreed to acquire Payoneera New York City-based online payments company, for approximately $2.75 billion.

– LongRange Capital agreed to acquire Pizza Hut (excluding Pizza Hut China), a Plano, Texas-based pizza chain, from Yum! Brands for approximately $1.5 billion.

– CVC Catalyst agreed to acquire a majority stake in WillowWood Holdingsa Mt. Sterling, Ohio-based prosthetics company. Financial terms were not disclosed.

– xFacta portfolio company of Renovated Capital Partnersacquired Stonewall Solutionsa Marlborough, Mass.-based technology provider to the government, law enforcement, higher education, and commercial sectors. Financial terms were not disclosed.

EXITS

– Francisco Partners acquired EfficientIPa Paris, France-based network automation and security company, from TempoCap and Jolt Capital. Financial terms were not disclosed.

– Leonard Green & Partners acquired Cumming Groupa New York City-based project management and cost management services company, from New Mountain Capital. Financial terms were not disclosed.

FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS

– Clearlake Capitala Santa Monica, Calif.-based private equity firm, raised $14.8 billion for its eighth fund focused on artificial intelligence, software modernization, digital transformation, and operational efficiency companies.

– Align Capital Partnersa Dallas, Texas and Shaker Heights, Ohio-based private equity firm, raised $1.1 billion across its two funds focused on the business services, technology, specialty manufacturing, and distribution sectors.

PEOPLE

– Base10 Partnersa San Francisco-based venture capital firm, hired Caroline Chen as a Principal. Previously, she was with L Catterton.