AI duo IPO race! OpenAI's internal schedule is to launch Anthropic in 2027 or rush in September

The Zhitong Finance App learned that according to reports, OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar (Sarah Friar) said at an employee general meeting on Wednesday that the artificial intelligence (AI) company “will become a listed company in 2027,” adding that if the business continues to grow at an accelerated pace, the open market debut may arrive earlier.

According to two people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because they were not publicly authorized, Flair told employees: “The IPO is not the end; it is a milestone, and a new financing opportunity. We raised $122 billion in March of this year, which gives us full flexibility.”

In June of this year, OpenAI secretly submitted an IPO prospectus to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but did not disclose the exact listing time. At the time, the company said in a statement: “We recently submitted a confidential S-1 document. We expected it to be leaked, so we took the initiative to announce it to the public. We haven't decided on the time; it may be a while since some of the things we want to do are easier to complete in a private company state.”

Anthropic may launch early in September

According to other reports, Anthropic, OpenAI's biggest competitor, is also advancing the listing process, and may even take the lead in “unraveling the veil” in the next few weeks.

In response, Flair told employees that there is no need to worry about Anthropic going public before OpenAI. She said, “As you know, we are in the confidential filing phase, and Anthropic is also filing. They are likely to unmask the classified documents in the next few weeks and go public in September. It doesn't matter, we have our own pace.”

According to reports, Anthropic has previously secretly submitted a prospectus to regulators and held early exploratory meetings with potential investors. If it goes public in September, it will be one of the leading companies to enter the open market in this round of AI competition.

At the employee meeting, Flair presented a slide showing that OpenAI's revenue operating rate has increased 35% quarterly so far, the company's revenue operating rate has increased by 50%, and the weekly active users of AI programming and work products have reached 20 million.

Earlier reports indicated that OpenAI's second-quarter revenue reached $6.7 billion, up 18% from the first quarter's $5.7 billion. The company's annualized revenue operating rate has recently exceeded 40 billion US dollars, yet the company is still unprofitable.

In contrast, Anthropic is growing more rapidly. The company told investors last weekend that by the end of July, its annualized revenue operating rate had reached 65 billion US dollars, a seven-fold increase from a year ago. Initial revenue for the second quarter was approximately US$11.5 billion, more than double the previous year, and achieved a small operating profit.

OpenAI is currently under pressure to prove its $852 billion valuation. As the IPO approaches, investors want to see more detailed financial conditions, and the rapid rise of competitors, the popularity of low-cost open source weighting models, and fluctuations in SpaceX's (SPCX.US) stock price after listing have all heightened market concerns.

OpenAI declined to comment on the financial data revealed in the report, and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Executives' departure drew attention, and President Brockman downplayed the impact

Freer's statement at the general meeting comes at a time when OpenAI is experiencing a wave of executive turnover. Last week, Denise Dresser (Denise Dresser), the company's head of revenue, left her job after only eight months in office. Two days ago, long-term executive Brad Lightcap (Brad Lightcap) announced the end of his eight years at OpenAI, saying he would “start something new.” In July, product business director Fidji Simo (Fidji Simo) also stepped down to focus on recovering from chronic diseases.

These changes have made some financial supporters uneasy about the stability of the company's senior management. Today, the remaining executives, including Flair, CEO Sam Altman (Sam Altman), and President Greg Brockman (Greg Brockman), need to show a stable image to the outside world.

Brockman downplayed the impact of executive departures in an interview on Monday. He said that he doesn't think this wave of personnel changes is “actually that untypical”. “I think the difference between OpenAI and other organizations is that we are in the spotlight, so every time we leave our job, we get extra scrutiny, and not at other companies.”