# ARR **Annual Recurring Revenue** — the annualized value of a company's active subscription contracts. The defining metric for SaaS and subscription businesses. Calculated by multiplying Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) by 12, or by summing annualized contract values. ARR matters for the vault because it's how AI companies signal scale. [[OpenAI]] reported ~$12.7B ARR in early 2026. [[Palantir]]'s government revenue is increasingly structured as subscription-style platform access. When a dossier says a company has "$X ARR," it means that amount renews automatically — a stickier revenue base than one-time contracts. The distinction from total revenue: ARR excludes one-time fees, professional services, and non-recurring contract components. A company can have high total revenue but low ARR if most of its income comes from project-based work (traditional defense contractors). High ARR signals platform dependency — the kind of structural lock-in the vault tracks across the [[Defense Tech Ecosystem]]. ## See Also - [[OpenAI Investors]] — ARR in context