OpenAI accelerates revenue to $40 billion: record pace amid personnel turbulence
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. This surge comes at a critical moment—amid preparations for an initial public offering (IPO) and a series of high-profile departures from top management.
Analyzing the structure of this growth, I highlight three key drivers. First, the ChatGPT subscriber base is expanding rapidly. Second, there is explosive demand for developer tools such as Codex, which automates code writing. Third, a young but already noticeable advertising business is beginning to generate substantial revenue.
What's behind the record figures?
Internal data confirms that July was the most successful month in the company's history, bringing in more revenue than the entire second quarter. President Greg Brockman informed the team of revenue growth of more than 20% compared to June. This surge is no coincidence—it resulted from a revision of pricing policy. The price reduction in July, contrary to skeptics' expectations, did not lead to a drop in revenue but instead attracted new corporate clients by making products more accessible.
AI agents provided additional momentum. Enterprise products such as ChatGPT Work are pushing clients to upgrade to more expensive tiers. This confirms a long-held thought of mine: in the AI industry, the winner is not the one who simply builds the best model, but the one who builds an ecosystem deeply integrated into clients' business processes.
Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar previously projected revenue of $20 billion by the end of 2025. Now, management is setting a goal to derive half of its revenue from enterprise clients by the end of the current year. Notably, OpenAI is not officially commenting on the new figures, which only fuels market interest.
Personnel turbulence ahead of the IPO
However, not everything is smooth. In the coming weeks, Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser is leaving the company after only about eight months. Global sales will be led by Dali Rajic, who previously served as president at cybersecurity company Wiz. This is not the first departure: the company previously lost Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap and Fidji Simo due to health reasons.
A wave of resignations has also swept through other key positions—from the head of the ethics department to the head of the security division. Greg Brockman is forced to personally take on part of the management functions to stabilize the situation. Meanwhile, preparations for the stock exchange are already in full swing: the IPO application has been filed confidentially, and the company has 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 of more than $2 trillion. The fate of OpenAI's stock will directly depend on whether the impressive revenue growth outweighs the negative effect of the personnel shuffle. In my view, the market is currently looking at fundamentals, and $40 billion in ARR is a very compelling argument capable of overshadowing any internal discord.