OpenAI makes $5.7B — so why is it bleeding $9.3B?

openai tripled q1 revenue to $5.7b and improved gross margins from 33% to 39%, but documents reveal it burned $3.7b in cash and reported a $9.3b operating loss, driven largely by over $2.3b in stock-based compensation and soaring compute bills. while the company holds $73b in cash and securities—insulating it from immediate fundraising—the widening loss of $21.3b net, largely from accounting adjustments, underscores the brutal economics of scaling frontier models. ceo sam altman continues to delay the ipo to focus on self-improving ai systems, but looming price wars with anthropic and chinese rivals threaten to further erode margins and stress that cash hoard.