OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar announces IPO plans for 2027

OpenAI is going public. CFO Sarah Friar told employees during an all-hands meeting on August 19 that the company plans to launch its IPO in 2027, contingent on continued business momentum. For a company that started as a nonprofit research lab, listing on a stock exchange is quite the character arc. The announcement comes roughly two months after OpenAI confidentially filed its S-1 prospectus with the SEC in June 2026, formally setting the gears in motion for what could be one of the largest tech IPOs in history. The numbers behind the move In March 2026, the company closed a $122 billion funding round, landing at a post-money valuation of $852 billion. The company is currently running at a $2 billion monthly revenue rate. Enterprise services now account for more than 40% of total revenue, a share expected to match consumer revenue by the end of 2026. Friar framed the IPO not as some grand finish line but as another milestone in OpenAI’s fundraising journey. The massive March raise, she noted, gives the company flexibility to be deliberate about timing rather than rushing to market out of necessity. Why 2027, not 2026 There was apparently internal discussion about a potential late-...