OpenAI reportedly hemorrhages $15 million/day on AI slop videos — after Bill Gates warned Satya Nadella against “burning billions” in the ChatGPT maker

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OpenAI has become a leading AI research lab, largely because it had a two-year period to focus on developing ChatGPT without significant competition, as noted by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Despite reports of high expenses, OpenAI is facing scrutiny regarding its financial sustainability. Critics point to a projected $1.4 billion spending on computing power, even though the company reportedly earns $13 billion from its products and services. CEO Sam Altman recently refuted these concerns, suggesting OpenAI is performing significantly better than indicated. He confidently stated he could easily find buyers for any shares people wanted to sell, highlighting strong investor interest in the company.

One executive predicts OpenAI’s revenue could reach $100 billion by 2027, even though some believe the current excitement around AI is a temporary bubble. Recent financial reports from Microsoft, a major investor in OpenAI, paint a more complex picture. They suggest OpenAI may have lost $11.5 billion in the past year while pursuing AI development. Interestingly, Microsoft reported a $4.7 billion loss related to OpenAI in its last quarterly report, categorizing it as general expenses.

As generative AI gets more powerful, it’s becoming clear that it needs a lot of resources to grow. A recent Forbes report supports this idea, estimating that OpenAI spends around $15 million each day running its Sora video creation app.

OpenAI’s Sora is an AI tool that turns text descriptions into videos. A new app similar to TikTok quickly became popular, reaching over 1 million downloads within its first five days.

We’ve all likely seen those videos while endlessly scrolling through social media, and sometimes, they’re so realistic you don’t even know they’re not real. That’s how advanced AI-generated videos have become.

OpenAI’s new video app, Sora, could cost the company up to $5 billion each year to operate. Forbes arrived at this estimate by considering the cost of the powerful computer chips (GPUs) needed to run the app, how efficiently it processes information, how many people are using it, and the volume of videos being created daily. Video models like Sora are significantly more complex and expensive than text-based models like GPT-5; for example, generating 750,000 words with GPT-5 can cost up to $10.

Sora 2 is a significant leap forward. Unlike previous models, it works with data in four dimensions, and carefully considers how actions unfold over time – about 24 frames every second. This complex process currently costs OpenAI around $1.30 to create just a 10-second video.

According to Forbes:

Mathivanan calculates that creating a video takes about 40 minutes of GPU processing power, or 8-10 minutes if using four GPUs simultaneously. Given a GPU rental cost of roughly $2 per hour, OpenAI’s current pricing seems reasonable. They currently charge $1 for a 10-second video with their Sora 2 model, and $3 for the more powerful Sora 2 Pro, suggesting they aren’t yet adding profit into the API costs.

We don’t yet know exactly how many people are using OpenAI’s Sora to create videos, or how many videos are being made daily. However, Forbes estimates that if 25% of Sora’s 4.5 million users post an average of 10 videos each day, that would total around 11.3 million videos. If each video were valued at $1.30, that could translate to almost $15 million in revenue daily, or $5.4 billion annually.

Despite being free and widely available, it’s unclear how OpenAI is currently making money with its Sora video creation app. It’s likely they’re prioritizing gaining users and recognition now, with plans to introduce a profitable business model later.

Currently, running Sora is very expensive, and OpenAI admits it’s not financially sustainable. Ads aren’t likely to appear in Sora soon, as CEO Sam Altman says they wouldn’t cover the costs of creating the videos. OpenAI is considering a future model where a mix of advertising and payments from dedicated, high-usage users could make Sora financially viable.

OpenAI and Microsoft have strengthened their partnership with a new agreement. Microsoft now owns 27% of OpenAI, valuing the company at $135 billion.

According to Sam Altman, Microsoft and Satya Nadella’s strong belief in OpenAI was crucial to its success. Interestingly, Bill Gates disagreed with the initial $1 billion investment Microsoft made in 2019, reportedly telling Nadella, “You’re going to burn this billion dollars.”

FAQ

What is Sora?

Sora is an image generator created by OpenAI. You can use it on any web browser, or by downloading the Sora app for iPhones and Android phones.

How much money does OpenAI make from Sora?

OpenAI released its AI model to the public for free, making it hard to track its revenue. However, a recent Forbes report indicates the company could be losing as much as $5 million daily due to the costs of running the tool.

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2025-11-11 15:10