After the earnings fiasco, OpenAI CFO urgently reassures staff at an all-hands meeting: Q3 ARR has increased by 35%, and the company may go public in 2027 or even earlier.

After OpenAI's Q2 revenue "shock" with only an 18% increase, far lower than Anthropic, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar held an all-hands meeting to "urgently extinguish the fire" and deliver a message of stability to employees.

On Wednesday, Friar told employees at the all-hands that OpenAI "will become a public company by 2027," but if "business keeps accelerating," the listing might happen sooner. According to two sources cited by CNBC, Friar stressed in the meeting: "An IPO is not the finish line, it's a milestone and another round of financing. We completed $122 billion in financing in March, which gave us plenty of flexibility."

Meanwhile, Friar presented employees with a set of latest Q3 data showing growth has clearly rebounded from Q2—one of the core messages of this meeting.

Q3 Data: Growth Rebounds, Enterprise Segment Particularly Strong

Slides shown by Friar in the meeting included:

• So far in Q3, OpenAI's overall annual recurring revenue (ARR) increased by 35%

• Enterprise ARR increased by 50%

• Weekly active users for AI programming and work products reached 20 million

This data comes after OpenAI previously disclosed to investors that Q2 revenue was $6.7 billion, up just 18% from Q1's $5.7 billion. According to The Wall Street Journal, operating losses also widened during the same period.

OpenAI had told investors that with the launch of a batch of new models in July, Q3 growth had already recovered somewhat. The data shared in this all-hands provides concrete evidence of this claim.

Anthropic May Go Public First, Friar Says "It's Fine"

Another important context for this meeting is that competitor Anthropic's IPO process is accelerating.

Previously, Anthropic had secretly submitted its IPO prospectus to regulators and begun early talks with potential investors. Market expectations are that it could go public as soon as September or October this year.

OpenAI also secretly submitted an IPO prospectus to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in June, but has not publicly disclosed specific listing plans.

Regarding Anthropic possibly going public first, Friar addressed this directly in the meeting: "As you know, we have secretly filed, and so has Anthropic. They might unveil their confidential filing in the next few weeks and become a public company in September. That's fine, we are running our own race."

Sources of Pressure: Q2 Performance and Executive Turnover

Friar's attempt to "extinguish the fire" highlights real-world pressures facing the company.

On performance: OpenAI’s Q2 revenue grew 18% quarter-on-quarter, while Anthropic’s preliminary revenue for the same period surpassed $11.5 billion, representing a surge of more than 140%. This is the first time Anthropic has overtaken OpenAI in quarterly revenue and realized slight operational profitability. This difference in growth rates has left some investors disappointed.

On the management side, OpenAI has recently seen frequent executive changes. Chief revenue officer Denise Dresser left last week after less than eight months in the role; previously, executive vice president Brad Lightcap ended his eight-year tenure to start a new venture; head of product Fidji Simo resigned in July for health reasons.

In response, OpenAI President Greg Brockman said in an interview with CNBC on Monday that he doesn’t think these personnel changes are actually that uncommon.

Currently, Friar, CEO Sam Altman, and Brockman are jointly taking on the task of projecting stability to the outside world. OpenAI also faces multiple external pressures, including the proliferation of low-cost open-source models, intensifying competition, and price volatility in SpaceX stock after its listing, with some financial backers having already expressed concern.