OpenAI's $50 Billion Revenue Figure Reportedly Triggers AI Stock Sell-Off

OpenAI presented investors with an annualized revenue figure of about $50 billion as of the end of September, the Financial Times reported, a number roughly $20 billion below the roughly $70 billion that had previously been reported. The disclosure landed on the same day the report was published.

The figure rippled quickly through markets. Nasdaq fell 1.25%, its largest single-day drop since August 2025, while selling spread across the AI supply chain: CoreWeave dropped nearly 8%, Oracle fell 5.5% and Nvidia lost 2.9%.

In New York trading that night, memory-chip makers also slipped. SK hynix's US ADR fell 4.35% and Micron dropped 4.79%.

OpenAI told investors its third-quarter annualized revenue growth was 77% overall and 107% in the enterprise segment, according to the report. Bloomberg separately reported that OpenAI expects its annualized revenue to reach or exceed about $70 billion by the end of the year.

In South Korea, Samsung Electronics reported preliminary third-quarter revenue of 195 trillion won and operating profit of 107.4 trillion won, while SK hynix's third-quarter operating profit market consensus stands at about 78 trillion won. tech42.co.kr reported on the market moves.

Wider spending backdrop

Late last month, Bain & Company forecast in its seventh annual global technology report that annual AI infrastructure spending could reach up to about $1.5 trillion by 2031. Micron said on the 1st that most of its 2027 HBM supply volume had already been contracted, with contract prices up sharply from a year earlier. Bank of Korea Governor Shin Hyun-song said in a July 29 National Assembly report that the global semiconductor cycle would continue expanding as AI use broadens to agentic and physical AI.