Ben Bergman

AI vibe coding darling Lovable is racing toward $1 billion in revenue

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Lovable, a Swedish vibe coding startup valued at $6.6 billion, saw its torrid growth accelerate even as Anthropic’s Claude Code went viral over the past few months.

The Swedish startup says its annual recurring revenue has surged by more than 30%, from $300 million to $400 million in a single month, and could top $1 billion by year’s end, Lovable’s chief revenue officer, Ryan Meadows, told Business Insider in an exclusive interview. ARR refers to the predictable revenue a company expects to generate over a year from subscriptions or recurring contracts.

Lovable’s breakout growth comes amid a broader boom in AI-powered coding tools, which include Claude Code and startup Cursor, which was last valued at nearly $30 billion. In late 2025, Cursor said it had $1 billion in annualized revenue.

Lovable launched at the end of 2024 and reached $100 million in ARR just eight months later, doubling to $200 million by the end of 2025.

Vibe coding allows novices with limited programming expertise to create code using AI. Lovable, founded by Anton Osika and Fabian Hedin, aims to make coding even more user-friendly, enabling non-engineers to make software and applications. It was valued at $6.6 billion in a December funding round led by CapitalG and Menlo Ventures’ Anthology fund.

“It’s accelerating quite a bit,” Meadows said. “We’ve doubled the number of active users daily just in the last couple of months.” Lovable now boasts over 15 million daily active users and sees 200,000 new vibe coding projects created each day, according to Meadows.

The vast majority of Lovable users are still non-technical founders and entrepreneurs, but Meadows says the company is seeing its fastest growth from the enterprise business it launched in August.

Anthropic is a partner rather than a competitor

Lovable’s most recent growth spurt occurred after the release of Claude Code. But rather than eating into Lovable’s market share, Meadows says most customers use both tools. Professional software developers and engineering teams use Claude, while non-technical staffers prefer Lovable.

“It’s a rising tide,” he said. “We’ve been super happy with what we’re seeing.”

Lovable is powered by Claude, and when Anthropic launched its marketplace this week, it prominently featured Lovable.

“They’re pretty committed to working with us to pass business through,” said Meadows. “We’re going to keep investing in that partnership.”

A hiring spree

Lovable has rocketed to $400 million in ARR with a lean staff of just 146 employees, said Meadows. This year, the company will embark on a hiring spree, mostly in product and engineering roles, and will end the year with around 350 employees, he added.

Though its engineering team will continue to be based in Stockholm, the company will be opening its first US office this year in Boston to house go-to-market roles.

“We can’t hire fast enough,” Meadows said.

Have a tip? Contact Ben Bergman via email at bbergman@businessinsider.com or Signal at BenBergman.11




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OpenAI could generate $25 billion in annual ad revenue by 2030, and that should worry Google, top tech analyst says

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Advertising could become a $25 billion business for OpenAI — and pose a threat to Google, according to new estimates on Monday from a top tech analyst.

Evercore ISI’s Mark Mahaney sees the startup generating that level of annual ad revenue by 2030 if it executes well on rolling out this new business.

OpenAI said on Friday that free and Go users of ChatGPT would start seeing ads “in the coming weeks.” OpenAI also laid out its advertising principles, such as clearly labeling them and not sharing user conversations with advertisers.

“A path to generating several billion dollars in ad revenue in 2026, going to $25B+ by 2030, seems reasonable,” Mahaney wrote in a note to investors.

That’s based on the likely scale of ChatGPT by that time, the proven monetization of high-intent performance marketing platforms, and the current size of this market, the analyst added.

OpenAI’s revenue is growing fast already. CFO Sarah Friar said in a recent blog post that the startup’s annualized revenue topped $20 billion in 2025, up from $2 billion in 2023. However, there are big question marks over OpenAI’s losses and whether it can become profitable in the future.

Advertising could be one way for OpenAI to boost its top and bottom lines.

Mahaney noted that Google’s Search and YouTube businesses likely generated close to $300 billion in ad revenue in 2025, with Meta generating an additional $180 billion. These are highly profitable operations, with operating profit margins of 40%, according to the analyst.

ChatGPT has almost 1 billion weekly average users, many of whom share valuable details with the chatbot, such as what they want and need. Advertisers are willing to pay up for access to this treasure trove. This is the type of intent-based information that forms the backbone of the massive digital ad businesses run by Google and Meta.

OpenAI has said that initial test ads will appear at the bottom of ChatGPT answers and be relevant to the user’s conversation with the chatbot. That approach might not be too intrusive for users, while still being attractive to advertisers, Mahaney said.

“OpenAI’s move directly challenges this core revenue stream by offering an alternative, highly engaging platform for users to discover products and services,” Mahaney wrote. “If ChatGPT can successfully integrate ads that are helpful rather than intrusive, it could siphon off valuable commercial queries that traditionally go to Google.”

The analyst also warned that if OpenAI can develop a “conversational” ad format, where users research and discuss potential purchases within ChatGPT, that could prompt advertisers to shift some of their marketing budgets because this is “high-intent engagement.”

Even if ChatGPT goes all-in on ads, though, don’t expect the chatbot to take Google’s share of the market overnight, Mahaney added.

OpenAI will still have to compete with the tech ecosystem that Google has spent years creating, such as its Chrome web browser, as well as web users’ habit of Googling stuff when they need an answer, Mahaney wrote.




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