OpenAI is telling employees to prepare for a public-market debut in 2027, according to CNBC. The outlet reports that CFO Sarah Friar said during a Wednesday all-hands meeting that OpenAI “will be a public company in 2027,” while leaving room for an earlier listing if the business continues to accelerate. The report is based on two people familiar with Friar’s comments who were not authorized to speak publicly. Techmeme also surfaced the report but attributes the account to CNBC, so the material details remain single-source within this cluster. CNBC reports that Friar framed an initial public offering as another capital-raising step rather than an endpoint for the company. According to the report, she also referred to OpenAI’s March fundraising and said that capital gives the company flexibility. CNBC says OpenAI confidentially filed its IPO prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in June, though the company has not publicly disclosed when it plans to list. The IPO timing matters because CNBC says OpenAI is under pressure to justify an $852 billion valuation ahead of its IPO. CNBC also reports that investors are eager to get a more detailed look into the company’s finances. Friar also addressed Anthropic, according to CNBC. She reportedly told employees not to worry if OpenAI’s rival lists first, and said Anthropic is also under confidential filing. CNBC reports that Friar said Anthropic could make its filing public in the coming weeks and become public in September, while emphasizing that OpenAI is operating on its own timeline. The same all-hands reportedly included fresh internal operating metrics. CNBC says Friar showed slides stating that OpenAI’s revenue run rate is up 35% quarter to date, enterprise revenue run rate is up 50% quarter to date, and the company’s artificial intelligence coding and work product has reached 20 million weekly active users. CNBC also cites recent revenue figures reported elsewhere and in its prior coverage. The outlet says The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI told investors it generated $6.7 billion in second-quarter revenue, up 18% from the first quarter. CNBC also says OpenAI’s annualized revenue run rate recently topped $40 billion. The competitive backdrop is Anthropic’s own reported growth. CNBC says Anthropic told investors over the weekend that its annualized revenue run rate reached $65 billion at the end of July, up sevenfold from a year earlier, and that it shared a preliminary second-quarter revenue figure of $11.5 billion. The report lands during a period of management churn at OpenAI. CNBC says revenue chief Denise Dresser recently left after eight months, Brad Lightcap said he was ending an eight-year run at the company, and Fidji Simo stepped down in July to focus on recovery from chronic illness. CNBC frames the remaining leadership team — including Friar, CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman — as needing to project stability while investors assess competition, lower-cost open-weight models and other risks. Who benefits: OpenAI would gain another potential capital channel if it reaches the public markets on favorable terms. The provided reporting does not specify lockups, share structure or offering size. Who's exposed: OpenAI’s leadership is exposed to sharper scrutiny around valuation, executive turnover and competitive comparisons with Anthropic. Public-market investors would also be evaluating a company whose finances CNBC says investors want to see in more detail.