OpenAI president confirms IPO in 2027: enterprise clients have become the main source of revenue, but funding target has shrunk from 30 billions to 20 billions

According to Jinse Finance APP, OpenAI President Greg Brockman stated on Wednesday that most of the company's current revenue comes from enterprise client sales, and he believes the company will be ready to go public in 2027.

Brockman said that this AI lab has been intensifying its efforts toward enterprise sales, competing with rival Anthropic—which may go public before the end of the year—including by promoting its Codex agent.

This AI executive made these remarks at a technology conference held in Napa, California. When asked on stage whether OpenAI would be ready for an IPO next year, he responded, “I think so.”

OpenAI has been accelerating its fundraising in order to leverage its recent growth after delaying its IPO plans.

A Difficult Funding Road

OpenAI's fundraising process is becoming increasingly challenging. Due to some investors reducing their subscriptions, OpenAI previously lowered its ongoing private fundraising target from $30 billion to $20 billion, a reduction of one third.

The challenges come from three aspects. First, AI sector valuations are correcting. Last month, tech stocks related to AI fell sharply, increasing market doubts about AI investment returns and casting a shadow over the IPO prospects of both OpenAI and Anthropic. Even more problematic, competitor Anthropic is expected to go public before the end of the year, competing with OpenAI for the same pool of funds and attention. Second, the pressure to monetize has surged. Token prices have dropped to about $0.59 per million, a decline of 35% since the end of June; beginning December 31, OpenAI will have to implement shared quotas for ChatGPT and Codex, with the new policy covering the Plus, Pro, and Business plans, while conversations in Instant mode will not count toward the quota. The pricing structure has clearly tightened. Third, capital expenditure is immense. To support leading-edge models, the company must continue to invest heavily, but the public markets may not be willing to fund these costs.

To address this, OpenAI has turned its attention to the Middle East. CEO Sam Altman traveled in person to Abu Dhabi for talks with the Crown Prince, signing agreements with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, Mubadala, MGX, and other institutions, seeking sovereign fund anchor investment; he also quietly visited South Korea to meet with Samsung executives and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won. According to Bloomberg, OpenAI has previously been in discussions with several UAE funds—including MGX—hoping to find anchor investors for its $30 billion funding round.