OpenAI plans to become a public company by 2027, according to comments from its chief financial officer. Sarah Friar shared the timeline during an all-hands meeting with employees on Wednesday.
Friar said the company could move faster if business keeps growing. She told staff the IPO is not a finish line. She called it another fundraising milestone.
Friar pointed to a $122 billion raise in March. She said that funding gives the company flexibility on timing.
OpenAI confidentially filed its IPO prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June. The company has not shared a public date for its stock market debut.
Rival AI lab Anthropic has also filed confidentially with regulators. Anthropic has started early talks with investors to gauge interest, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Friar told employees not to worry if Anthropic goes public first. She said there is a chance Anthropic reveals its filing and lists shares as early as September.
"That's OK, we are running our own race," Friar said, according to two people who heard her remarks.
Revenue Growth Reported
OpenAI faces pressure to justify its $852 billion valuation before any listing. Investors want a clearer view of the company's finances.
During the meeting, Friar showed slides on company growth. She said OpenAI's revenue run rate rose 35% so far this quarter.
Enterprise revenue run rate grew 50% over the same period. The company's AI coding tool reached 20 million weekly users.
OpenAI generated $6.7 billion in revenue during the second quarter. That figure rose 18% from the first quarter, based on a report from the Wall Street Journal.
The company's annualized revenue run rate recently passed $40 billion. Anthropic reported an annualized run rate of $65 billion at the end of July.
That number marks a sevenfold jump from a year earlier for Anthropic. The company also shared a preliminary second quarter revenue figure of $11.5 billion.
Executive Departures
Friar's comments come after several leadership changes at OpenAI. Some financial backers have raised concerns about the shifts.
Revenue chief Denise Dresser left her role last week. She had been with the company for eight months.
Her exit came two days after longtime executive Brad Lightcap announced his departure. Lightcap had spent eight years at the company before deciding to start a new venture.
Fidji Simo, who led OpenAI's product business, stepped down in July. She said she needed to focus on recovering from a chronic illness.
Remaining leaders, including Friar, CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman, now aim to show stability. Investors are watching competition from rivals and the rise of lower-cost open-weight AI models.
President Greg Brockman addressed the departures during a CNBC interview on Monday. He said he does not see the turnover as unusual for a fast-growing company.
Brockman said the difference is that OpenAI operates under more public attention than most firms. He said that means every departure gets more scrutiny than it would elsewhere.
