A new analysis by venture capitalist Deedy Das reveals that three of the world’s most valuable private AI startups are still generating no revenue despite combined valuations of tens of billions of dollars.
In a new post on X, the Menlo Ventures executive reveals that robotics firm Figure AI, Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence (SSI), and Thinking Machines Lab—all valued between $12 billion and $39 billion—are operating without recorded income.
Das’s ranking lists 15 private AI firms with valuations above $10 billion, including industry giants OpenAI, xAI, and Anthropic. The three revenue-less firms stand out as outliers in a sector otherwise defined by explosive growth and commercialization.
The table highlights the contrast between valuation and revenue generation across the emerging AI landscape. OpenAI tops the list with a $500 billion valuation and roughly $12 billion in annual revenue, while Anthropic follows at $183 billion with more than $5.5 billion in sales. Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s xAI is valued at $200 billion, while generating about $200 million in annual revenue.
While the largest private AI firms are generating hundreds of millions in revenue, Das’s data shows how extreme AI valuation multiples have become.
OpenAI is valued at roughly 40 times its reported revenue, while Anthropic’s ratio sits above 30 times, and xAI’s valuation stands at 1,000 times its revenue. Smaller players like Perplexity, Mistral AI, and Sierra are valued at more than 100 times their annual sales.
Even firms with steady income streams are drawing dot-com–era premiums. Scale AI, with an estimated $870 million in revenue, carries a valuation near $20 billion, a multiple of about 23 times.
On Monday, former Intel chief executive Pat Gelsinger called the current wave of AI investment a bubble, but noted that its momentum may run hot in the coming years.
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