OpenAI accelerates revenue pace to $40 billion: record growth amid personnel turbulence
OpenAI is demonstrating impressive financial momentum: the company's annual recurring revenue (ARR) has surpassed the $40 billion mark. This figure has doubled compared to the end of 2025, sending a powerful signal to the market ahead of a potential public offering.
Such explosive growth significantly strengthens the position of those advocating for a stock market debut. However, alongside its financial successes, the company is facing serious personnel instability—senior leadership is stepping down, adding uncertainty ahead of the IPO.
What is driving OpenAI's revenue growth
Three key areas are driving growth. First, the ChatGPT subscriber base continues to expand. Second, sales of developer tools related to code writing are growing rapidly. Third, the young advertising business is beginning to generate tangible revenue.
Company President Greg Brockman told employees that revenue in July grew by more than 20% compared to June. A previously conducted internal analysis confirmed that July brought in more revenue than the entire second quarter. Notably, this was also aided by a new pricing policy—lowering service costs for customers not only failed to reduce income but also attracted new corporate clients.
AI agents provided additional momentum. Specialized systems such as Codex for programmers and ChatGPT Work for office teams are actively pushing clients to upgrade to more expensive pricing plans. Earlier, Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar projected revenue exceeding $20 billion by the end of 2025, but current growth rates have surpassed all expectations. Management is now targeting half of its revenue from corporate clients by the end of this year.
Personnel reshuffling complicates IPO preparation
Despite brilliant financial results, the company will lose Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dressel in the coming weeks, who served at OpenAI for about eight months. Global sales will be led by Dali Rajic, who previously held the position of president at cybersecurity company Wiz.
Dressel's departure is just part of a large-scale personnel rotation. Earlier, Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap left the company, and a month ago Fiji Simo also stepped down due to health reasons. Over the past few months, OpenAI has also lost its head of ethics, its head of the safety division, and its former director of strategic development. Greg Brockman has taken on some management functions in an attempt to stabilize the situation.
Meanwhile, stock market preparation is in full swing: the IPO application has already been filed, and the company recently bought back $7 billion worth of shares from employees using its own funds. However, competitor Anthropic, which plans to go public as early as October with a valuation exceeding $2 trillion, could beat OpenAI to the market. Final valuations will largely depend on whether the impressive revenue growth outweighs the negative impact of the string of executive departures.
My take: OpenAI's current momentum is impressive, but the personnel shuffle is a troubling signal for investors. Ahead of the IPO, management team stability is critically important, and if the wave of departures continues, it could significantly adjust market expectations regarding the company's fair valuation.