OpenAI will become a publicly traded company in 2027, chief financial officer Sarah Friar told employees at an all-hands meeting on Wednesday, according to CNBC, which cited two people familiar with her remarks who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Friar told staff the company “will be a public company in 2027” and said the debut could come earlier if the business continues to inflect. She framed the listing modestly, describing it to employees as a milestone rather than a finish line, and as another way for the company to raise money.

OpenAI earned $122 billion in March at an $852 billion valuation, a position Friar believes gives the firm some maneuverability. The company filed its prospectus privately with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June but has not yet announced a date. That confidential route keeps a company’s financial details out of public view until shortly before it markets the deal to investors.

Friar’s 2027 timeline prevails over Altman’s earlier push

The 2027 date settles an argument that has run inside the company since the winter. As Cryptopolitan reported in June, Sam Altman was pushing for an IPO in Q4 2026 and refused to consider any valuation below $1 trillion, while Friar made the case internally to wait until 2027 because the company was not ready for public disclosures.

Her reluctance is backed by experience with the process itself: Friar was CFO of Square, now Block, when it listed in 2015, and she took Nextdoor public as its CEO in 2021, before joining OpenAI in 2024. Going public brings quarterly reporting and full financial disclosure, obligations that sit behind the readiness debate.

Advisers presented leadership with two options: a faster listing at a lower price, or a 2027 listing at the target valuation. Friar’s position is now the one being communicated to the entire company — and it contradicts her own public stance. Speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live event in November, she said an “IPO is not on the cards right now” and that she was “not interested in getting tied up in an IPO.”

OpenAI says revenue growth is accelerating ahead of a listing

Friar presented figures alongside the timeline. Revenue run rate is up 35% quarter to date, and enterprise run rate is up 50%. The enterprise number matters because Friar told investors on 14th August that business income now exceeds consumer income, after the year began with a reverse ratio of 60-40. The business is annualizing to $40 billion, with growth of 32% in July alone. These figures currently reach outsiders through internal briefings and investor calls rather than public filings, so a completed listing would give the first mandated, regular window into OpenAI’s finances.

The meeting took place just days after the departure of chief revenue officer Denise Dresser, who is among several high-level executives who have left the firm this year. Last week, OpenAI bought back $7 billion in employee shares at the same $852 billion valuation set in March — a tender that gives staff liquidity while the company remains private.

Anthropic still leads on valuation and reported run-rate revenue

Friar addressed the competition directly, telling employees that Anthropic might reveal its filing in the coming weeks and go public in September — and that this was fine. According to the Wall Street Journal, both companies have been informed by banks that whoever lists first will set the industry standards.

Anthropic filed its confidential S-1 on June 1 and was valued at $965 billion in May, $113 billion above OpenAI’s most recent private mark. According to Cryptopolitan, investors are discussing a valuation in excess of $2 trillion when Anthropic goes public, and the company has reached a run rate of $65 billion per year, compared with OpenAI’s $40 billion in late July. Neither company has published a date, leaving two concrete markers to watch: whether Anthropic’s filing becomes public in the weeks Friar indicated, and whether OpenAI moves its confidential submission toward a public prospectus.