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HERE COMES THE MONEY

WrestleMania 41 was WWE’s most-watched and highest-grossing event ever

Viewership for the flagship wrestling showcase more than doubled from last year.

4/23/25 10:40AM

The 41st annual WrestleMania event took place in Las Vegas over two nights on the weekend, with WWE legend-turned-actor John Cena crowned world champion for a 17th time — more than anyone else in WWE history — after pinning opponent Cody Rhodes with some help from, er, Travis Scott.

While Cena will be glad to have scooped one final belt before he retires from wrestling for good, WWE itself, which has sat in the wider TKO Group corporate stable alongside UFC since 2023, will also be basking in Sunday night’s glory...

You can see me

According to WWE, WrestleMania 41 set an all-time record for revenue, with on-site merchandise sales up more than 45% from the previous year and e-commerce revenue up 86%, making it the company’s highest-grossing event ever. It was also WWE’s most-watched event of all time: the live stadium matchups brought almost 125,000 fans through the gates over both nights and viewership was up 114% from 2024 across streaming partners Peacock and Netflix.

World Wrestling Entertainment, which has roots as far back as 1953, when Vincent J. McMahon founded the Capitol Wrestling Corporation, penned a $5 billion deal with Netflix last January to make the platform a major international home for livestreamed events like WrestleMania. Since then, WWE’s live events division has boomed, accounting for nearly $340 million in revenue in 2024, almost 3x the amount recorded just two years prior.

Still, media deals accounted for the majority (62%) of WWE’s knockout $1.4 billion annual revenue last year — and with Peacock’s streaming deal with the brand set to expire next March, the heavyweight figures are only likely to add strength to the wrestling company’s position in renewal discussions.

Cut above the wrestle… On the business side, TKO Group has also upped the ante on sponsorship. Per WWE, WrestleMania 41 featured a record 28 partners in total, and sponsorship brought in $83 million in revenue last year.

Tom Jones7h

OpenAI’s ARR reached over $20 billion in 2025, CFO says

Sam Altman’s $500 billion artificial intelligence behemoth hit a major financial milestone last year, according to a new blog post over the weekend from OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar, as the company confirmed it had hit a more than $20 billion annual revenue run rate at the end of 2025.

Elsewhere in the blog post, Friar spent time addressing the company’s shifting goals, referencing plans to “close the distance between where intelligence is advancing and how individuals, companies, and countries actually adopt and use it.” As has become customary in the AI company press release genre, the CFO was also keen to tout the unending growth of the business, writing:

“Both our Weekly Active User (WAU) and Daily Active User (DAU) figures continue to produce all-time highs. This growth is driven by a flywheel across compute, frontier research, products, and monetization.”
“Compute grew 3X year over year or 9.5X from 2023 to 2025: 0.2 GW in 2023, 0.6 GW in 2024, and ~1.9 GW in 2025.”

And, perhaps most importantly for current backers and those keeping an eye on the private company before its rumored mega IPO:

“Revenue followed the same curve growing 3X year over year, or 10X from 2023 to 2025: $2B ARR in 2023, $6B in 2024, and $20B+ in 2025. This is never-before-seen growth at such scale.”

That latest figure has certainly set tongues in the tech world wagging, just as the company announced it would begin rolling out ads to free and ChatGPT Go users. It also puts the chatbot giant a fair way ahead of competitors like Anthropic, the company behind Claude.

OpenAI Anthropic ARR race — Sherwood News

A business that scales with the value of intelligence

“Both our Weekly Active User (WAU) and Daily Active User (DAU) figures continue to produce all-time highs. This growth is driven by a flywheel across compute, frontier research, products, and monetization.”
“Compute grew 3X year over year or 9.5X from 2023 to 2025: 0.2 GW in 2023, 0.6 GW in 2024, and ~1.9 GW in 2025.”

And, perhaps most importantly for current backers and those keeping an eye on the private company before its rumored mega IPO:

“Revenue followed the same curve growing 3X year over year, or 10X from 2023 to 2025: $2B ARR in 2023, $6B in 2024, and $20B+ in 2025. This is never-before-seen growth at such scale.”

Washington, DC, looks set to get America’s second Sphere

Revenue for the Las Vegas version of the big orb has soared, but the Sphere is still a money pit.

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Max Knoblauch

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Opponents of the Netflix-Warner Bros. deal take fight to Europe

Europe is the latest frontier of the ongoing tug-of-war for the “Friends” back catalog.

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Ford reportedly in talks to buy hybrid vehicle batteries from Chinese auto giant BYD

Detroit’s Ford and China’s BYD are said to be in ongoing talks to partner on an agreement that would see Ford buy hybrid vehicle batteries from BYD, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal.

The report comes just days after President Trump toured a Ford factory in Michigan and implied openness to Chinese automakers coming to the US.

“If they want to come in and build a plant... that’s great, I love that,” Trump said on January 13. “Let China come in, let Japan come in.”

Last week, China’s Geely Automobile Holdings said it expects to make an announcement about expanding into the US within the next three years. Chinese carmakers currently face huge tariffs and software restrictions, effectively barring their vehicles from the US.

Ford has doubled down on hybrid vehicles amid high EV costs and the end of federal EV tax credits. The automaker is currently building a battery plant in Michigan where it plans to use tech from Chinese battery maker CATL.

Exclusive | Ford, China’s BYD in Talks for Hybrid-Vehicle Batteries After EV Market Flames Out

“If they want to come in and build a plant... that’s great, I love that,” Trump said on January 13. “Let China come in, let Japan come in.”

Still life of Ozempic and Wegovy with weight scale.

Lawsuit alleges Lilly, Novo locked up telehealth to kill compounded GLP-1s

Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar estimated that around 1.5 million US patients are using compounded versions of the company’s drugs.

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