OpenAI IPO nears as revenue crosses $25bn

OpenAI has crossed $25bn in annualized revenue and is actively preparing its OpenAI IPO for as early as the fourth quarter of 2026.

OpenAI has crossed $25bn in annualized revenue and is preparing its OpenAI IPO for as early as late 2026. The milestone was reported by The Information in early March, citing a person familiar with the figures, with Sacra estimating the revenue hit $25bn by the end of February, up from $6bn at the end of 2024. No software company has scaled to this revenue level in a comparable timeframe.

CFO Sarah Friar has told associates the company is targeting a regulatory filing in the second half of 2026, with a potential listing in 2027. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley are in discussions about advising the offering.

Friar said separately that the company will allocate a portion of its IPO shares to retail investors, calling it “good hygiene” for a company of its size to act like a public company.

Why the IPO is not optional

OpenAI’s revenue growth is extraordinary but its economics are not. The company generated $13.1bn in revenue in 2025 and spent approximately $22bn to do it. Annual cash burn is projected to reach $57bn by 2027, and the company does not expect to reach breakeven until 2030. The $122bn raised in March gives OpenAI roughly 18 to 24 months of runway before another major capital event is required.

As crypto.news reported, OpenAI is also expanding aggressively into financial services, rolling out tools that connect ChatGPT with institutional data platforms, a move that signals ambitions well beyond consumer subscriptions.

The company’s April 2026 conversion to a public benefit corporation removed the structural barrier to going public that its nonprofit origins had created. Rival Anthropic is simultaneously pursuing its own $50bn raise at a $900bn valuation, creating a potential race to market that could affect OpenAI’s listing window and investor appetite.

Market and crypto implications

Kalshi prediction markets priced the probability of OpenAI announcing an IPO at close to maximum confidence for contracts resolving by early 2026. As crypto.news tracked, on-chain secondary markets are now pricing Anthropic above OpenAI on an implied valuation basis, adding competitive pressure that makes the IPO timeline more urgent.

A $1 trillion listing would be the largest public offering in technology history and would set the benchmark against which every AI company’s private valuation is subsequently judged.