OpenAI could go public as early as next year. Greg Brockman, the company’s president and co-founder, suggested as much on Wednesday at The Wall Street Journal’s technology conference in Napa, California. When the moderator asked him whether the company would be ready for an IPO in 2027, he replied briefly that he thought it would.
He also revealed that OpenAI now makes most of its money from sales to businesses rather than individual users.
A turnaround after a weak spring
Brockman did not hide the fact that the year did not start well for OpenAI. According to him, the first two quarters were very difficult, and the company had no presence at all in AI agent-assisted programming. Meanwhile, rival Anthropic was gaining ground there with its Claude Code tool. OpenAI did have its own agent, Codex, but no one was talking about it. According to Brockman, the company did not let this discourage it and kept working—they simply put their heads down and got on with it, he said.
The turning point came in the third quarter. OpenAI’s annualized revenue run rate jumped by 70 percent in that quarter alone, which Brockman attributed mainly to the doubling of its enterprise business. According to him, this was not the result of a single quarter, but the payoff from investments the company had already been making.
Enterprise customers now account for the majority of OpenAI’s revenue, compared with roughly 30 percent previously. Brockman emphasized that revenue from individual users is not declining and continues to grow; the enterprise side of the business has simply overtaken it. As an example of a new type of client, he cited the recent partnership with JPMorgan Chase. OpenAI is primarily trying to push Codex into companies, putting it in direct competition with Anthropic, which is expected to go public before the end of this year.
For individuals and businesses alike
Brockman admitted that just a year ago, companies primarily viewed OpenAI as a consumer brand. Many of the companies it began negotiating with asked whether OpenAI was serious about the enterprise market. According to him, the company has since learned that it must help customers identify what they can achieve with its technology, earn their trust, and demonstrate that it will stay with them for the long term.
OpenAI is also preparing financially for its path to the stock market. According to Reuters, after postponing its original IPO plans, the company has accelerated its fundraising from investors so that it can capitalize as much as possible on its recent growth.
