OpenAI and Anthropic are both private AI companies, but they differ in governance, product distribution, and the financial figures they have disclosed. Neither company’s private funding valuation is a listed share price or, by itself, an investment available to ordinary retail investors. Their reported revenue and user figures also do not establish profitability or make the companies directly comparable.
How do OpenAI and Anthropic compare?
The clearest comparison is not a model-quality ranking: the available figures below do not establish which company has better-performing products. Instead, they show different governance arrangements, routes to customers, and disclosed financial measures. The figures are dated and attributed because the companies are private and the measures are not equivalent.
| Area | OpenAI | Anthropic |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate structure | OpenAI says its nonprofit Foundation controls OpenAI Group PBC, a public benefit corporation, following an October 28, 2025 reorganization. | The reviewed May 28, 2026 funding announcement names investors and partners but does not provide a comparable, comprehensive ownership and governance breakdown. |
| Products and routes to customers | ChatGPT consumer and business offerings, plus an API platform. Associated Press reported a strategic push toward business customers and workplace AI agents in April 2026. | Claude, Claude Code, and Cowork. Anthropic said in May 2026 that Claude was available through AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. |
| Disclosed business metrics | Associated Press reported CFO Sarah Friar’s remarks that business customers accounted for about 40% of revenue in April 2026, compared with about 20% when she joined in 2024. She forecast half by year-end 2026. AP also reported more than 900 million weekly ChatGPT users and that about 95% did not pay. | Anthropic said its run-rate revenue crossed $47 billion earlier in May 2026. This is a company-reported run rate, not audited annual revenue. |
| Financing and valuation reported | Associated Press reported a $122 billion fundraising round and an $852 billion valuation on April 15, 2026. | Anthropic announced a $65 billion Series H at a $965 billion post-money valuation on May 28, 2026. |
| Compute and infrastructure | AP reporting described compute costs as a business concern; the material reviewed here does not give a directly comparable capacity or supplier figure. | Anthropic described major planned compute arrangements with Amazon, Google, and Broadcom, access to GPU capacity through SpaceX, and AWS as its primary cloud provider and training partner. |
The valuation figures are dated private-round or fundraising figures reported on different dates and bases; they are not public-market capitalizations. The revenue figures are also unlike measures: one is an executive’s account of the share of OpenAI revenue from business customers, while the other is Anthropic’s run-rate claim. They should not be used to calculate comparative growth, margins, market share, or profitability.
How do their business models and distribution differ?
OpenAI: consumer reach alongside an enterprise push
OpenAI has consumer and business versions of ChatGPT as well as an API platform. That mix gives the company routes to individual users and organizations building AI into products or workflows. But reach is not the same as paid demand: Associated Press reported more than 900 million weekly ChatGPT users and reported CFO Sarah Friar’s statement that about 95% did not pay. Those are reported figures, not independently audited counts.
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Friar’s reported revenue mix points to a strategic emphasis on business sales. AP said business customers represented about 20% of OpenAI revenue when she joined in 2024 and about 40% by April 2026. Her expectation that the share would reach half by year-end 2026 was a forecast, not a result. Enterprise growth may offer a route to monetization, but the reported figures alone do not show how much revenue is recurring, what it costs to serve customers, or whether the business is profitable.
Anthropic: Claude across enterprise and cloud channels
Anthropic’s May 28, 2026 announcement highlighted Claude, Claude Code, and Cowork, and described enterprise adoption. It said customers could access Claude through AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, while AWS remained Anthropic’s primary cloud provider and training partner. These channels can put Claude within customers’ existing cloud relationships; they also make the availability, terms, and cost of infrastructure partnerships relevant to the company’s execution.
Anthropic said it had arranged substantial planned compute capacity with Amazon, Google, and Broadcom and access to GPU capacity through SpaceX. These were company-described plans and arrangements as of May 28, 2026, not proof that all planned capacity was already deployed. Anthropic CFO Krishna Rao said in the announcement, “This funding will help us serve the historic demand we are experiencing, stay at the research frontier, and bring Claude to more of the places where work happens.” That is the company’s stated rationale for funding, not independent evidence of future returns.
What do the ownership and funding figures tell an investor?
OpenAI’s company-described control structure
OpenAI says it began as a nonprofit in 2015 and created a for-profit subsidiary in 2019. After its October 28, 2025 reorganization, the nonprofit became the OpenAI Foundation and the for-profit became OpenAI Group PBC. OpenAI says the Foundation retains control, appoints the Group board, and can replace directors. Its structure page says: “The OpenAI Foundation continues to control the OpenAI Group.”
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OpenAI reported that, as of the recapitalization closing, the Foundation held 26% of OpenAI Group, Microsoft held roughly 27%, and employees and investors held the other 47%. These are company-described ownership figures at that closing, not independently verified current holdings. OpenAI describes the public benefit corporation as required to advance its stated mission and consider broader stakeholder interests. That structure does not, by itself, remove commercial, execution, or regulatory risk; an investor would need to understand how governance rights and mission commitments interact with capital needs and business decisions.
Anthropic’s funding round and disclosure limits
Anthropic announced a $65 billion Series H at a $965 billion post-money valuation on May 28, 2026, and named Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia among the round’s lead investors, alongside other co-leads and investors. The same announcement said its run-rate revenue had crossed $47 billion earlier that month. Neither a private funding valuation nor a run-rate revenue claim is an audited financial statement, and the announcement does not supply an equivalent comprehensive ownership and governance breakdown to the one OpenAI describes.
Associated Press reported on April 15, 2026 that OpenAI had a reported $852 billion valuation after a $122 billion fundraising round. Because that report predates Anthropic’s May announcement and uses its own reporting basis, the two valuations are not a same-date comparison of market prices. The available figures do not establish what any investor could pay for a share today or what rights such a share would carry.
What are the main risks of investing in either company?
Capital needs, compute, and profitability
Frontier AI development and deployment require substantial computing resources. Anthropic’s announced infrastructure plans and OpenAI-related reporting on compute costs illustrate why access to capacity, supplier terms, and financing can affect both companies. Large funding rounds can support expansion, but they do not prove that the resulting products will earn durable margins.
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Partner concentration and strategic entanglement
Cloud and compute relationships can help an AI company reach customers and secure infrastructure, but they can also create dependence on a small number of powerful partners. A Federal Trade Commission staff study examined Microsoft–OpenAI, Amazon–Anthropic, and Alphabet–Anthropic investments and partnerships. Staff discussed potential competitive advantages from cloud integration and access to sensitive technical or business information.
The FTC said its findings drew on information available to staff through September 2024 and public information through January 2025. They are staff-study findings with that evidence cutoff, not a later enforcement conclusion or a finding about the status of every partnership today.
Competition and product execution
Associated Press described OpenAI’s business-oriented push amid competition from Anthropic and reported product-prioritization changes. Both companies must turn product development into sustained customer adoption while managing rapid changes in the AI market. The figures and announcements discussed here do not establish a durable product advantage or a current model ranking, so a financial comparison should not treat either company’s lead as settled.
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Legal, policy, and governance exposure
In a May 28, 2026 report, Associated Press described Anthropic’s dispute with the U.S. administration over military use of Claude and a supply-chain-risk designation, with litigation ongoing at the time of that report. That date-specific account does not establish the status of the dispute on October 8, 2026. Legal and policy developments can affect customer access, government business, and operating plans, so investors should check current court and government records before relying on the reported status.
Governance and disclosure are also risks to evaluate. OpenAI’s stated nonprofit control and ownership figures are company descriptions tied to the 2025 recapitalization closing. Anthropic’s cited funding announcement does not provide enough detail for a matched governance comparison. The available material does not establish comparable audited financial statements or public-offering documents for the two companies.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Can ordinary investors buy OpenAI or Anthropic shares?
Not through an ordinary public-stock purchase on the evidence described here: both companies are private in the cited coverage, and a private valuation is not a listed share price. The material reviewed does not establish a public offering or confirm terms for any private-share access. Private-market opportunities, where available, can have eligibility, liquidity, disclosure, and valuation risks; they are not interchangeable with buying a publicly traded stock. Do not infer that a funding-round valuation is a price at which an individual can buy or sell shares.
What should you verify before making an investment decision?
A disciplined comparison should wait for evidence that answers the risks the headline figures cannot resolve. In particular, look for:
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- Audited, comparable financial statements, including revenue definitions, operating costs, cash use, and profitability.
- Offering documents or verified share terms that explain ownership rights, voting or governance rights, transfer restrictions, and valuation basis.
- Current customer and revenue disclosures that distinguish paid usage, recurring contracts, and forecasts from realized results.
- Details on compute commitments, supplier concentration, capacity actually available, and the cost and duration of infrastructure agreements.
- Current legal and regulatory status, rather than relying on a report that described litigation as ongoing months earlier.
Without those items, the disclosed figures are useful for understanding each company’s stated strategy and financing scale, but not enough to establish which is the better investment.
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