OpenAI president confirms 2027 IPO: enterprise customers have become the main revenue driver, but the fundraising target has shrunk from RMB30 billion to RMB20 billion.

OpenAI President Greg Brockman said on Wednesday that most of the company's revenue currently comes from sales to enterprise customers, and he believes the company will be ready to go public in 2027. Brockman said the AI lab has been stepping up sales to enterprises to compete with rival Anthropic, which may list before the end of the year, including promoting its Codex agent. The AI executive made the remarks at a tech conference in Napa, California. When asked on stage whether OpenAI would be ready for an IPO next year, he said: "I think so." OpenAI has been accelerating fundraising so that, after delaying its IPO plans, it can leverage its recent growth. A bumpy fundraising road OpenAI's fundraising path is becoming bumpy. Because some investors reduced their subscriptions, OpenAI had previously lowered the target for its ongoing private fundraising from RMB30 billion to RMB20 billion, a one-third reduction. The difficulties come from three levels. First, valuations in the AI sector are correcting. AI-related tech stocks fell sharply last month, and doubts about returns on AI investment have intensified, casting a shadow over the IPO prospects of OpenAI and Anthropic. More troublesome is that rival Anthropic is expected to list first before the end of the year, competing with OpenAI for the same pool of capital and attention. Second, monetization pressure has risen sharply. Token prices have fallen to about US$0.59 per million, down 35% since the end of June, and OpenAI has had to impose shared quotas for ChatGPT and Codex starting December 31. The new policy covers the Plus, Pro and Business plans, while conversations in Instant mode are not counted, and the pricing structure has clearly tightened. Third, capital expenditure is enormous. To support frontier models, the company must continue to invest heavily, and public markets may not be willing to pay for it. To that end, OpenAI is looking to the Middle East. CEO Sam Altman personally traveled to Abu Dhabi, met with the crown prince, and signed agreements with institutions including Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, Mubadala and MGX to seek anchor financing from sovereign funds; he also made a low-profile visit to South Korea to meet with Samsung executives and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won. According to Bloomberg, OpenAI had been in talks with several UAE funds, including MGX, hoping to find anchor investors for its RMB30 billion funding round.