OpenAI accelerates revenue to $40 billion: record growth amid personnel turbulence
OpenAI is demonstrating impressive financial momentum, doubling its annual revenue run rate to $40 billion. This figure, achieved by mid-2026, is more than double the projections announced at the end of 2025.
Such aggressive growth significantly strengthens the company's position ahead of a potential public stock offering. However, alongside these financial successes, we are witnessing a wave of resignations among key executives, which introduces an element of uncertainty into the IPO preparations.
What is driving the explosive revenue growth
The main drivers are three areas: the steady expansion of the ChatGPT subscriber base, rapidly growing sales of developer tools, and the unexpectedly successful launch of an advertising business that is already generating substantial revenue.
Internal data confirms that July was a record month, showing revenue growth of more than 20% compared to June and exceeding the total figures for the entire second quarter. Company President Greg Brockman personally informed employees of these results.
A key role was also played by the new pricing policy. The reduction in service costs for corporate clients, made possible by cost optimization, not only did not lead to a decline in revenue but also attracted new major customers.
Additional momentum was provided by AI agents. Products like Codex for programmers and ChatGPT Work for office teams are encouraging clients to switch to more expensive pricing plans, increasing the average transaction value.
Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar previously projected revenue of $20 billion by the end of 2025. Now, management is setting a goal to generate half of all revenue from corporate clients by the end of the current year.
Personnel changes as a risk factor
In the coming weeks, Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dressel will leave the company, having worked at OpenAI for only about eight months after moving from Slack. Her duties will be transferred to Dali Rajic, who previously headed the cybersecurity company Wiz.
This is not the first loss in senior management. Earlier, Fidji Simo left for health reasons, and resignations were also recorded from the head of the ethics department, the head of the security division, and the director of strategic development. Greg Brockman has taken on some management functions in an attempt to stabilize the situation.
Against the backdrop of these events, the company has already filed for an IPO in confidential mode and bought back shares from employees for $7 billion at its own expense.
My analysis: Doubling revenue is undoubtedly a powerful argument for investors, but turnover in the C-suite creates reputational risks. Competitor Anthropic, which plans to go public as early as October with a valuation exceeding $2 trillion, could seize the initiative. The success of OpenAI's offering will depend on whether the team can convince the market that operational issues have been overcome, not just on brilliant financial metrics.