OpenAI CFO Sarah Frier Tells Employees Not To Worry About Anthropic's IPO Timeline, Says Company Is 'Running Its Own Race'
· Free Press Journal
OpenAI chief financial officer Sarah Friar has told employees during a recent all-hands meeting that the ChatGPT maker will become a public company in 2027, though the listing could arrive sooner if business momentum continues. Friar said the IPO should not be viewed as an endpoint but as another step in the company's fundraising journey, noting that OpenAI raised $122 billion in March, which gives it continued financial flexibility.
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Addressing the Anthropic question directly
Friar used part of the meeting to get ahead of employee concerns that rival Anthropic could beat OpenAI to public markets. Both companies have confidentially filed IPO prospectuses with regulators, and Friar told staff there was a real possibility Anthropic could make its filing public in the coming weeks and complete its listing as early as September. According to the CNBC, she told employees that outcome would be fine, since OpenAI's focus remains on its own trajectory rather than measuring itself against Anthropic's timeline. OpenAI confidentially filed its IPO prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June but has not disclosed a specific debut date. Anthropic has also confidentially filed its own prospectus and has reportedly been holding early meetings with potential investors.
OpenAI's financial performance under scrutiny
OpenAI is under pressure to justify its $852 billion valuation ahead of a public listing, with investors seeking greater visibility into its financials. During the meeting, Friar shared slides showing that the company's revenue run rate is up 35 percent quarter to date, its enterprise revenue run rate is up 50 percent quarter to date, and that its AI coding and work-product tools have reached 20 million weekly active users. Separately, OpenAI told investors it generated $6.7 billion in revenue in the second quarter, up 18 percent from the first quarter, according to a Wall Street Journal. The company's annualised revenue run rate has recently crossed $40 billion.
Anthropic's own numbers
Anthropic, meanwhile, told its investors over the weekend that its annualised revenue run rate reached $65 billion by the end of July, a sevenfold increase from a year earlier, along with a preliminary second-quarter revenue figure of $11.5 billion.