Better Offline Exclusive: Here's How Much OpenAI Spends On Inference And Its MSFT Revenue Share
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Nov 12, 2025 Ed Zitron dives into OpenAI's staggering $5.02 billion inference spending in early 2025, revealing much higher costs than previously suggested. He uncovers how Microsoft received nearly $494 million from OpenAI's revenue share, prompting questions about sustainability. The discussion highlights rising inference costs and their potential impact on the AI industry's profitability. Zitron's insights on the financial dynamics between OpenAI and Microsoft offer a fascinating look at the future of AI operations.
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Inference Costs Are Far Larger Than Reported
- OpenAI's inference spend on Azure was $5.02B in H1 2025 and $3.76B in 2024.
- Inference costs more than doubled year-over-year and reached $8.67B by Sept 2025.
Public Estimates Understate Compute Spend
- Prior reporting underestimated inference costs by billions of dollars.
- The Information had cited ~$2B for 2024 and projected ~$6B for 2025, both lower than these documents indicate.
Revenue Shares Imply Lower OpenAI Revenues
- Microsoft received $493.8M from OpenAI in 2024, implying at least $2.469B in OpenAI revenue that year.
- H1 2025 revenue implied at least $2.273B from a $454.7M revenue-share payment.