OpenAI CFO: Enterprise Revenue Now Surpasses Consumer Business

According to CNBC, in the wake of a turbulent week of executive upheaval at OpenAI, CFO Sarah Friar held a meeting with investors on Friday (14th) to emphasize the growth of the company's enterprise business. She stated that enterprise revenue has now surpassed the consumer business, which is primarily driven by ChatGPT.

A source familiar with the meeting revealed that Friar said, 'At the beginning of this year, the ratio was 60-40, but enterprise growth has far exceeded expectations, and the two have now crossed over. Currently, the majority of our revenue comes from the enterprise side.'

This indicates that OpenAI's enterprise business growth has outpaced earlier projections. Earlier this year, Friar told CNBC that the company had expected the two businesses to reach parity by the end of 2026. OpenAI's current annualized revenue has reached $40 billion.

According to presentation materials seen by CNBC, OpenAI's annualized revenue increased by 20% in July compared to the previous month, with enterprise customer revenue growing even faster at 32%.

The source said Friday's investor meeting had been scheduled before this week's executive departures and was attended by existing OpenAI shareholders. The day before the meeting, Head of Revenue Denise Dresser announced her departure, just eight months after joining. Dresser had spent over a decade at Salesforce (CRM-US) and most recently served as CEO of Slack. She posted on LinkedIn that she is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.

Two days earlier, OpenAI senior executive Brad Lightcap also announced the end of his eight-year tenure at the ChatGPT developer.

OpenAI President and co-founder Greg Brockman also attended Friday's meeting. The source said Brockman thanked Dresser for her contributions and for laying the foundation for the enterprise business, and expressed excitement about her successor, Dali Rajic. Rajic previously served as COO of cybersecurity company Wiz, which has now been acquired by Google (GOOGL-US).

The source said Rajic was introduced to OpenAI through Thrive founder Josh Kushner.

Executives were also asked about competition from China's open-source models. The source said Brockman downplayed the competitive threat, pointing out a market misconception that 'open-source models are cheaper.'

Executives were also asked when the company might go public with an IPO. However, because OpenAI has already submitted confidential filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), management could not comment.

Friar emphasized revenue growth and said the company is adapting to changes in how customers use its products. The era of 'tokenmaxxing'—where companies allowed employees to accumulate massive AI spending without demonstrating sufficient output—is over.

Citing Friar, the source said, 'Enterprise customers have shifted from tokenmaxxing to focusing on the cost per unit of intelligence.' She also highlighted that OpenAI's latest models have improved efficiency by 54% on agent-style programming tasks, and the company has recently reduced prices across its model lineup.

Friar also said OpenAI has made 'significant progress' in its advertising business. The source noted that OpenAI's advertising business has an annualized revenue approaching $1 billion. OpenAI began testing ads on ChatGPT in February this year.