OpenAI revenue miss sparks tech selloff; IPO delayed to next year

OpenAI has informed investors its annualized revenue is near $50 billion as of September, about $20 billion below analysts' earlier estimates of $70 billion, triggering a tech stock selloff on Wall Street. The discrepancy stems from OpenAI aligning its revenue calculation method with rival Anthropic, though OpenAI excludes sales through cloud partners like AWS and Google Cloud. The news, alongside rising oil prices and Treasury yields, dragged the S&P 500 tech sector down 2% on Thursday. OpenAI has postponed its planned autumn IPO until next year, instead pursuing a pre-IPO funding round of $30 billion that could value it at $1.4 trillion. Meanwhile, Anthropic is preparing for a Nasdaq listing in mid-November, targeting up to $100 billion.