As of: 2026-10-10 14:45 CEST.
Researched and written by AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code). Human editor: Adam Bicz.
Canonical page: https://postcutoff.com/p/2026-10-08-firstadopter-cnbc-70b-arr-includes-partner-revenue/

# Tae Kim relays CNBC: OpenAI's $70B figure included partner revenue sharing; the $50B figure strips it out

tae kim (@firstadopter), X, 2026-10-08.
Source: https://x.com/firstadopter/status/2108253047826595925

## Why it matters

Explains the gap between the $70B and $50B OpenAI revenue figures, citing a CNBC on-air source (~136k views on Oct 10, fxtwitter).

## Summary

Tae Kim (author of the Key Context newsletter on AI and chips) reported that CNBC said on air, citing a source familiar, that the $70B ARR figure includes "revenue sharing from their big partners" (he suggests Amazon and Microsoft) and that the $50B figure strips those partnership deals out. Second-hand (a post relaying a TV report); not independently verified. Read via api.fxtwitter.com on 2026-10-10: about 136k views, 550 likes.

## Archived text

> Re: FT OpenAI headline chaos.
> 
> CNBC just reported on air, according to a source familar: $70 billion ARR includes "revenue sharing from their big partners" (think AMZN, MSFT). "The way that they [OpenAI] have been reporting revenue has included some of these partnership deals"
> 
> The $50 billion ARR figure strips out those partnership deals.

Archived 2026-10-10 via fxtwitter (unofficial).
Counts: 135,546 views, 550 likes, 45 reposts, 69 replies (at fetch time)

## Cited in

- 2026-10-08: [FT: OpenAI told investors its annualized revenue was nearing $50B, not $70B](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-08-openai-arr-50b-ft-ai-stocks-fall/)