Which AI companies are profitable? Only 2 of 9 big ones report a profit
Data checked Nov 10, 2026 · How we verify
Only 2 of 9 big AI companies we track report a profit: ElevenLabs (~$116M in 2025) and Mercor (small, H1 2025). Higgsfield says it breaks even on cash. OpenAI and Anthropic lose money on operations; Cursor, Replit, Perplexity and fal haven't said. Checked Nov 9, 2026. Reported, not verified
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Which big AI companies are profitable?
| Company | Profitable? | What's reported |
|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs ~$600M ARR | Yes (reported) | About $116M of profit in 2025 Forbes, May 2026 |
| Mercor Over $2B gross run rate | Yes (reported) | Free-cash-flow positive, about $6M profit in H1 2025 Dealroom (The Information), 2026 |
| Higgsfield Over $1B run rate | Break-even / small | Breaking even on cash flow "over the past couple of months" Higgsfield blog, Sep 29, 2026 |
| Cursor Over $4B run rate | Break-even / small | Gross margin turned slightly positive; profit not disclosed TechCrunch, Apr 17, 2026 |
| Anthropic $33.2B revenue, Jan–Sep 2026 | No | $1.26B operating loss for Jan–Sep 2026 (profit in Q2, loss in Q3) S-1/A (SEC), Nov 2, 2026 |
| OpenAI About $50B run rate | No | $20.92B operating loss in 2025; $3.7B cash burn in Q1 2026 Ars Technica (Jun 2026); Reuters, Jun 16, 2026 |
| Replit About $240M a year (Oct 2025) | Not disclosed | Gross margin about 23% in Jul 2025 (reported) Business Insider, Oct 20, 2025 |
| Perplexity Over $750M annualized | Not disclosed | No profit figure; 2024 gross margin disputed The Information, via The Deep Dive, May 2025 |
| fal About $800M annualized | Not disclosed | No profit figure; category gross margins "thin" TechCrunch, Nov 3, 2026 |
Read Nov 9, 2026. Revenue figures are each company's latest reported number (run rates are recent revenue multiplied out to a year, not money already collected). Nothing in this table is processor-verified. Tally: 2 report a profit, 2 report break-even cash flow or a positive gross margin only, 2 report operating losses, 3 have not disclosed. Revenue side by side: how much do AI companies make?
Is OpenAI profitable?
No. In 2025 OpenAI had an operating loss of $20.92B on $13.07B of revenue (audited statements reported by Ars Technica, Jun 2026). Research and development alone was $19.18B, including $10.59B paid to Microsoft. In Q1 2026 it burned $3.7B of cash on $5.7B of revenue (The Information, via Reuters). Revenue keeps climbing, to about $50B a year by late September 2026 (run rate). Full breakdown: how much OpenAI makes.
Is Anthropic profitable?
Not over a full period yet. Its amended IPO filing (S-1/A, Nov 2, 2026) shows Q2 2026 was its first quarter with an operating profit, $974M, then a $567M operating loss in Q3, which includes a $1.96B non-cash charitable contribution. January to September: a $1.26B operating loss on $33.2B of revenue. Its own adjusted operating income, which leaves out stock pay and some one-off costs, was +$2.46B in Q3. Details: how much Anthropic makes.
Is ElevenLabs profitable?
Reportedly yes, with the largest reported profit of any company here. Forbes reported that ElevenLabs made $116M in profit in 2025 (profile updated May 19, 2026). It now reports about $600M ARR. Asked about gross margins in September, its CEO gave what he called "a vague answer" and said the company doesn't mind "the margins going lower" while it proves value to customers (TechCrunch, Sep 24, 2026). So 2026 profit is not a given. More: how much ElevenLabs makes.
Is Higgsfield profitable?
About break-even on cash, by its own account. Higgsfield wrote that CEO Alex Mashrabov said it had been breaking even on a cash-flow basis over the past couple of months (Higgsfield blog, Sep 29, 2026), and Business Insider described it as cash-flow positive in June 2026. Cash flow is not profit, and Higgsfield hasn't published one. It says it passed $1B in annualized revenue in September with nearly 1M paying subscribers. More: how much Higgsfield makes.
Is Mercor profitable?
Reportedly yes, on a small scale. A person with knowledge of its financials said Mercor was free-cash-flow positive and made about $6M of profit in the first half of 2025 (Dealroom). It told investors it expects $226M of operating profit in 2026 (The Information, via Dealroom). That is a forecast. Its $2B figure is gross revenue, and experts it places keep 60–70%. More: how much Mercor makes.
Is Cursor profitable?
Not proven. Cursor ran at negative gross margins until early 2026, meaning the product cost more to run than customers paid. Its own Composer model and cheaper third-party models then got it to "slight gross margin profitability", with enterprise accounts positive and individual developer accounts still losing money (people familiar, TechCrunch, Apr 17, 2026). Gross margin comes before salaries, research and marketing. Cursor is now part of SpaceX. More: how much Cursor makes.
Are Replit, Perplexity and fal profitable?
None has published a profit figure. Replit: Business Insider (Oct 20, 2025) cited The Information reporting gross margins around 23% in July 2025, which the CEO called "not far off". Perplexity: The Information reported in May 2025 that its 60% gross margin for 2024 counted $33M of costs for free and trial users as research spending, and that the margin would have been negative otherwise (via The Deep Dive). fal: TechCrunch reported on Nov 3, 2026 that gross margins at inference companies like it "remain thin" because compute is expensive (TechCrunch; a category comment, not a fal number).
Why do so many AI companies lose money?
In these reports the reason is the same: compute. Every answer, image or line of code costs model or GPU time, so heavy users can cost more than they pay. That is the Cursor story above. The labs add huge research and training bills on top: OpenAI's 2025 research and development spend ($19.18B) was larger than its revenue. The companies that report profits sell work businesses already pay people for, like voice agents (ElevenLabs), expert labor (Mercor) and ad creative (Higgsfield). That last point is our read, not a reported finding.
Are small AI businesses more profitable than the AI giants?
By their founders' numbers, mostly yes. 31 small AI businesses with verified revenue on our leaderboard publish a profit margin on TrustMRR. The median is 70%, and 26 of 31 report 50% or more (founder-provided, read Oct 31, 2026). The biggest by estimated profit (verified MRR × stated margin, our math): Cometly (~$177,000 a month), Rezi (~$145,000 a month), PropGPT (~$83,800 a month). TrustMRR verifies revenue from Stripe or RevenueCat but not costs, so treat those margins as claims. The full table: are AI startups profitable?
More: the verified AI revenue leaderboard, AI business revenue statistics, how to make money with AI and how to build a business with AI.
FAQ
Which AI companies are profitable?
Very few of the big ones say so. Of 9 large AI companies we track, 2 have a reported profit: ElevenLabs (about $116 million in 2025, per Forbes) and Mercor (about $6 million in the first half of 2025 and free-cash-flow positive, per The Information via Dealroom). Higgsfield says it has been breaking even on cash flow (Sep 2026). OpenAI and Anthropic lose money on operations. Cursor, Replit, Perplexity and fal have not published a profit figure (read Nov 9, 2026).
Is OpenAI profitable?
No. Its 2025 operating loss was $20.92 billion on $13.07 billion of revenue (audited statements reported by Ars Technica and Quartz, Jun 2026), and it burned $3.7 billion of cash in Q1 2026 (The Information, via Reuters).
Is Anthropic profitable?
Not over a full period yet. Q2 2026 was its first quarter with an operating profit ($974 million), but Q3 2026 was a $567 million operating loss, which includes a $1.96 billion non-cash charitable contribution. For January to September 2026 it lost $1.26 billion on operations (S-1/A filed with the SEC, Nov 2, 2026).
Is ElevenLabs profitable?
Reportedly yes. Forbes reported that ElevenLabs made $116 million in profit in 2025 (company profile updated May 19, 2026). In September 2026 its CEO said it is willing to let margins go lower to win customers (TechCrunch, Sep 24, 2026). ElevenLabs does not publish financial statements.
Is Higgsfield profitable?
Roughly break-even on cash, by its own account. Higgsfield wrote on Sep 29, 2026 that its CEO said it had been breaking even on a cash-flow basis over the past couple of months, and Business Insider called it cash-flow positive in June 2026. Cash flow is not the same as profit, and Higgsfield has not published a profit figure.
Is Cursor profitable?
Not proven. TechCrunch reported on Apr 17, 2026 that Cursor had reached slight gross-margin profitability after running at negative gross margins, with enterprise sales positive and individual developer accounts still losing money. Gross margin is before salaries, research and marketing, so this is not net profit.
Is Replit profitable?
Replit has not said. Business Insider (Oct 20, 2025) cited The Information reporting gross margins around 23% in July 2025, which the CEO called "not far off" and improving. That is gross margin, not profit.
Are small AI businesses more profitable than the AI giants?
By the founders' own numbers, mostly yes. 31 small AI businesses with verified revenue on The AI Receipts publish a profit margin on TrustMRR; the median is 70%, and 26 report 50% or more (founder-provided, read Oct 31, 2026; revenue is verified, margins are not).
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