Anthropic, OpenAI now outpace McDonald's, Starbucks in annual revenue

Anthropic and OpenAI are now generating annual revenue that surpasses traditional American corporate giants McDonald's and Starbucks, according to forecasts shared by Axios using data from AI investment research platform Funda. Anthropic, the maker of Claude AI, is on track to bring in $71 billion（約11兆円） in the next year, while OpenAI is expected to have $49 billion（約7.8兆円） in annual revenue. By comparison, Starbucks is forecast to generate $37.2 billion（約6兆円） in the same time period, and McDonald's is set to sell $29.6 billion（約4.7兆円） worth of products. The combined revenue of Anthropic and OpenAI is projected to nearly equal the combined revenue of McDonald's, Starbucks, and Yum Brands (the parent company of Taco Bell and KFC).

Anthropicwas founded only five years ago and has raised more than $100 billion（約16兆円）, with a valuation of $965 billion（約150兆円） in May 2026 according to the company's own figures. The company has secured major commercial customers across finance, healthcare, and technology sectors, and has grown existing partnerships with cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, according to Reuters. OpenAI has similarly expanded its reach by recently expanding its ChatGPT Enterprise program and signing agreements with businesses seeking AI-powered productivity software. In contrast, McDonald's and Starbucks—companies that trace their histories back decades—together operate more than 80,000 locations worldwide. The stark difference in business models and scale underscores the speed at which businesses have adopted generative AI technologies compared to the decades-long build-out required for global consumer franchises.

The revenue forecasts reflect the extraordinary velocity of generative AI adoption across corporate America. Anthropic and OpenAI, both relatively young entrants in the technology landscape, are on track to outpace companies that have spent decades building global consumer franchises and physical infrastructure. McDonald's and Starbucks each operate more than 40,000 locations worldwide, yet their projected annual revenues are substantially lower than the AI firms'. The comparison is particularly striking because it is not based on speculative valuations but on near-term revenue forecasts: companies are actively spending on AI software and services at a scale that already exceeds the annual sales of major consumer brands. Anthropic's trajectory is especially notable—the company has built its $965 billion（約150兆円） valuation in just five years through a combination of major customer wins in finance, healthcare, and technology sectors, plus deepening partnerships with cloud providers. OpenAI's expansion of its ChatGPT Enterprise program and new business agreements signal similar momentum. The data underscores that the corporate AI boom is not a speculative bubble confined to venture capital; it represents real, near-term revenue flowing to AI firms from a broad customer base.

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