OpenAI’s chief financial officer Sarah Friar has told employees the company will go public in 2027, settling an internal debate over timing and giving a clearer horizon to one of the most closely watched listings in the AI sector. According to CNBC, Friar said at an all-hands meeting on Wednesday that OpenAI “will be a public company in 2027,” adding that the debut could come earlier if the business continues to inflect.
The timeline represents a win for Friar over CEO Sam Altman, who had pushed for an IPO as early as the fourth quarter of 2026 and was reportedly unwilling to accept a valuation below $1 trillion. OpenAI filed a confidential prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June, but no public date has been announced. The company last raised at an $852 billion valuation in March and recently completed a $7 billion employee share buyback at that same mark.
Friar also presented accelerating revenue figures: revenue run rate is up 35% quarter to date, while enterprise run rate has increased 50%. She noted that business income has exceeded consumer income, annualizing to around $40 billion. The meeting came shortly after the departure of chief revenue officer Denise Dresser, one of several senior executives to leave OpenAI this year.
Meanwhile, AI infrastructure provider Temporal is reportedly seeking about $500 million at a valuation of at least $12 billion. Temporal develops “durable execution” technology that helps AI agents and long-running applications recover from failures without restarting from scratch. Its clients include OpenAI, ADP, Block, and Yum! Brands. If completed at the reported level, the round would double Temporal’s valuation in six months and mark a more than fourfold increase in roughly 18 months. The company previously raised $300 million in February at a $5 billion post-money valuation in a Series D led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Temporal’s appeal is tied to the economics of AI reliability. The company reported more than 380% year-over-year revenue growth, 350% growth in weekly active usage, and 500% growth in installs to over 20 million per month when it announced the February round. Gartner has predicted spending on agentic AI workflows will increase fivefold by 2028, a phenomenon it calls the “Inference Paradox,” in which cheaper per-token costs are overwhelmed by far greater token consumption. For crypto markets, the developments reinforce the broader AI infrastructure and AI agent narrative that has supported AI-linked digital assets.
Anthropic remains a direct competitive factor. Friar told employees that Anthropic could file publicly in the coming weeks and go public as soon as September, and that this was acceptable. Anthropic was valued at $965 billion in May, above OpenAI’s most recent private mark, and investors are reportedly discussing a valuation above $2 trillion when it lists.
