Fine Print: six details behind the headlines
A closer look at this week’s revenue figures, funding rounds, and pending deals.
$50 billion: OpenAI’s own revenue figure
OpenAI told investors its annualized revenue was approaching $50 billion at the end of September, according to the Financial Times, as reported by Reuters. That is about $20 billion below the nearly $70 billion Reuters and Axios reported on September 29.
The difference comes down to which sales are counted. Anthropic includes sales through cloud partners such as AWS and Google Cloud in its annualized figure; OpenAI does not, the FT reported. Investors’ attempts to put the companies on the same basis contributed to the higher OpenAI estimate. Axios also reported that the $70 billion figure had been adjusted to match Anthropic’s method.
Annualized revenue often multiplies one month’s sales by 12, Reuters notes. It is a snapshot of the sales pace, not revenue collected over a full year. Reuters could not independently verify the FT report, and OpenAI had not responded to its request for comment.
For more company information, recent coverage, and available market data, visit OpenAI on Augment.
$40 billion: Isomorphic Labs’ valuation is still in talks
Alphabet’s Isomorphic Labs is in early funding talks at a valuation of at least $40 billion, Bloomberg reported Thursday. One person familiar with the discussions said it could reach $50 billion. The financing has not closed, terms could change, and the report names neither investors nor a fundraising amount.
The AI drug-discovery company raised $2.1 billion in May, but that round’s valuation was not disclosed in the coverage. There is no reported baseline for calculating the increase. RuntimeWire’s summary of the new talks cites no clinical-trial results.
Roughly 50/50: OpenAI reaches roughly half of OpenRouter spend measured against Anthropic
About 120,000 companies using both OpenAI and Anthropic on OpenRouter split their spending almost evenly between the two in September. Anthropic had about three-quarters of that spending at the start of the year, according to the Wall Street Journal, as summarized by Trending Topics.
The Journal attributed the shift mainly to OpenAI’s price cuts, including an 80% cut on its smallest model. Weekly OpenRouter data also put OpenAI just above half of the two providers’ combined dollar spend for the week of September 7. These figures cover spending through OpenRouter, whose customers are mostly AI startups and tech companies. They do not measure either provider’s total revenue.
No price disclosed: SpaceX’s spectrum deal awaits approval
SpaceX agreed to buy all of Grain Management’s 800 MHz spectrum holdings, including up to 14 MHz of paired low-band spectrum, to support Starlink’s mobile service, according to Investing.com. The price was not disclosed, and the transaction still needs final Federal Communications Commission approval.
Telecom shares fell in after-hours trading Thursday following the announcement: AT&T by about 6.75%, T-Mobile by 5.4%, and Verizon by 5%, per market data. Investors reacted before the purchase price or an approval timeline was public.
$5.4 billion: Oratomic’s reported valuation more than triples in three months
Oratomic raised a $475 million Series B at a reported $5.4 billion valuation, up from $1.5 billion after its $300 million Series A in July, according to the Wall Street Journal, as relayed by The Next Web. Based on the reported figures, the new valuation is approximately 3.6 times the July figure. SiliconANGLE reports $5.5 billion; neither source specifies whether the valuations are pre- or post-money.
ARCH Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Khosla Ventures, Index Ventures, General Catalyst, and Bezos Expeditions co-led the round, bringing total funding to $775 million. Founded in 2025, the quantum-computing startup aims to build a fault-tolerant machine with about 10,000 qubits, according to SiliconANGLE. That report does not disclose revenue.
$900 million: USV raises larger funds with a smaller partnership
Union Square Ventures raised $900 million across two funds, according to Bloomberg, as summarized by AI Weekly. Its $500 million early-stage fund is up from $275 million in 2024; its $400 million opportunity fund is up from $350 million.
The firm will have four active general partners: Fred Wilson, Nick Grossman, Rebecca Kaden, and Michael Mignano. Brad Burnham, Albert Wenger, Andy Weissman, and John Buttrick move to reduced or advisory roles while keeping their board seats. Wilson said the larger funds would let USV lead rounds with checks of about $30 million. The $900 million represents investor commitments to the funds, not investment returns.
Augment and/or its affiliates hold a position in Anthropic.
Reported private-company financials and secondary-market indications may be unaudited, incomplete, non-standard, or based on limited transaction activity. They should not be relied upon as fair value, executable pricing, or a basis for any investment decision.
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Paul leads editorial at Augment, building Pulse into the private markets' go-to intelligence source. He also develops editorial content strategies for startups and venture capital firms. Previously, he spent 15 years as a business and opinion journalist at The New York Times, Fortune, Fast Company, Reuters, and more. He believes transparency creates liquidity—and that someone should actually publish what private shares are trading for. He lives in Marin with his wife and two rescue dogs, and wishes he had more time to surf.
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