OpenAI accelerates revenue to $40 billion, but loses key executives ahead of IPO.
OpenAI is demonstrating impressive financial momentum: the company's annual recurring revenue (ARR) has reached $40 billion, double the figure from the end of 2025. However, as it prepares for an initial public offering (IPO), the company faces a serious challenge—an exodus of top executives.
What's Behind the Rapid Revenue Growth
Analysis shows that three key areas have made the main contribution to this explosive growth. First, the ChatGPT subscriber base continues to expand. Second, sales of developer tools such as Codex are growing rapidly. Third, a young but already noticeable advertising business has begun generating tangible revenue.
Company President Greg Brockman told employees that revenue in July grew by more than 20% compared to June. Moreover, internal data confirms that July brought in more revenue than the entire second quarter. This indicates that the company is on an upward trajectory that impresses even the most skeptical investors.
The new pricing policy also played a role. In July, OpenAI lowered service costs as the business became more economically efficient. Contrary to concerns, cheaper products did not lead to a drop in revenue but instead attracted new corporate clients, expanding the market reach.
AI agents—specialized systems for task automation—provided additional momentum. ChatGPT Work, aimed at office teams, and Codex for programmers are actively pushing clients to upgrade to more expensive plans. This is a strategically sound move that diversifies revenue and increases the average transaction value.
Personnel Turbulence on the Eve of the IPO
However, not everything is smooth. In the coming weeks, Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser, who joined from Slack in December 2025 and worked for only about eight months, is leaving the company. Global sales will be led by Dali Rajic, who previously served as president and chief operating officer of the cybersecurity company Wiz.
Dresser is leaving following Brad Lightcap, whose responsibilities she was partly expected to take over. A month ago, Fidji Simo also left for health reasons. These are just the latest links in a long chain of personnel changes: over the past few months, the company has also lost its head of ethics, head of the security division, and former chief strategy officer.
Greg Brockman has taken on some management tasks to stabilize the situation. Preparation for the stock exchange is in full swing: OpenAI has already filed for an IPO in confidential mode and recently bought back $7 billion worth of shares from employees using its own funds.
Competitor Anthropic plans to go public as early as October with a valuation exceeding $2 trillion, which adds additional pressure. OpenAI's final valuation will depend on whether revenue growth can offset the negative effect of key executives leaving.
My view: Doubling ARR to $40 billion is an undeniable success, demonstrating the strength of OpenAI's business model. However, turnover at the C-suite level is a worrying signal for investors. Ahead of the IPO, the market will closely watch how stable the management team is, as trust in it often becomes the decisive factor in assessing a company's prospects.