OpenAI accelerates revenue to $40 billion: record pace amid personnel turbulence
OpenAI is demonstrating impressive financial momentum, reaching an annual revenue run rate of $40 billion. This figure doubles the results from late 2025, significantly strengthening the company's position ahead of a potential public offering.
What's behind the explosive revenue growth?
Analyzing the structure of this growth, I highlight three key drivers. First, the ChatGPT subscriber base continues to expand actively. Second, sales of developer tools related to code writing are growing rapidly. Third, a young but fast-growing advertising business line is making a notable contribution.
The July dynamics deserve special attention: revenue for that month grew by more than 20% compared to June, and total revenue for July exceeded the figures for the entire second quarter. This signals not just linear but exponential acceleration in monetization.
The new pricing policy also played its part. Lowering service costs for corporate clients, made possible by cost optimization, not only did not lead to a decline in revenue but also attracted new large customers. AI agents provided additional momentum: Codex for programmers and ChatGPT Work for office teams are actively pushing users to upgrade to more expensive pricing plans.
Notably, CFO Sarah Friar had previously forecast revenue of $20 billion by the end of 2025. Current figures more than double those expectations, and management has set a goal of generating half of its revenue from corporate clients by the end of this year.
Personnel changes as a risk factor
However, amid financial success, the company is facing a serious staffing problem. In the coming weeks, OpenAI will be leaving its Chief Revenue Officer, Denise Dresser, who has been with the company for about eight months. This is already the second major departure in recent times — previously, Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap left the company.
Global sales will now be led by Dali Rajic, who previously served as president at cybersecurity company Wiz. Turnover in senior management raises questions: over the past few months, the head of ethics, the head of the security division, and the chief strategy officer have all departed.
President Greg Brockman is being forced to take on additional management functions to stabilize the situation. Meanwhile, IPO preparations are in full swing: the company has filed for listing and bought back $7 billion worth of employee shares using its own funds.
My analysis: Doubling the revenue run rate to $40 billion is a powerful signal to the market that could justify the company's high valuation. However, ahead of the IPO, personnel instability in key commercial divisions is a serious risk for investors. Competitor Anthropic, which plans to go public as early as October with a valuation of over $2 trillion, only adds to the pressure. OpenAI's stock performance will largely depend on whether revenue growth can offset the negative consequences of management turmoil.