Attendees were able to design stickers for the personal assistant agent “dots” at the OpenAI Developer Conference held at Fort Mason in San Francisco, California on September 29, 2026.
Heather Deal | Getty Images
Hello, this is Leonie Kidd from London. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.
Every metric counts when justifying a valuation of more than $850 billion.
OpenAI’s latest annual revenue forecast, seen by CNBC, surprised investors by being lower than previously announced, and the market rallied against technology stocks.
Read more.
What you need to know today
A $20 billion month-over-month difference is bound to attract negative attention.
In a statement seen by CNBC, OpenAI told investors that its annual revenue reached $50 billion at the end of September. This is significantly lower than the $68 billion figure widely reported last month.
The discrepancy, first revealed by the Financial Times, spooked investors, who flocked to sell AI stocks from Nvidia to Oracle to CoreWeave.
It comes at a critical time for OpenAI. CEO Sam Altman has confirmed that the group will not attempt an IPO this year, but the company is still trying to justify its valuation of more than $850 billion.
You can watch CNBC’s full interview with Altman and CNBC’s Kate Rooney at the group’s DevDay last week here.
For now, futures prices have rebounded from Thursday’s decline, with all three major markets expected to open higher on Friday.
public issues
Meanwhile, Anthropic is reportedly seeking a $2 trillion valuation in its upcoming Nasdaq listing. Research firm New Constructs called it “the most ridiculous IPO of 2026” in a recent note, adding that it “carries far greater risks and could represent a far greater rip-off of U.S. capital markets.”
In other IPO news, NVIDIA-backed Australian AI group Firmus pulled its IPO, citing market volatility. This was to be the second largest share sale in Australian history.
Iran is on hold
Saudi Arabia travel disruption
Escalating attacks by the Houthis on Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh have led to flight cancellations and disruption to workplaces and schools. An Iranian-backed group in Yemen claimed to have fired a missile at the Saudi capital’s airport and threatened to close Saudi airspace.
CNBC continues to monitor the situation, which is likely to impact two major events scheduled to take place in Riyadh in the coming weeks.
— Leonie Kidd
