OpenAI Annualized Revenue Accelerates; CFO Internally States July Surpassed Entire Q2

OpenAI is raising its revenue curve at an astonishing pace. The CFO of this globally influential artificial intelligence company disclosed in an internal meeting that the company's monthly increase in Annualized Recurring Revenue (ARR) in July exceeded that of the entire second quarter, indicating that its commercialization process is accelerating.

On Thursday, according to partial transcripts of the internal meeting obtained by CNBC, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar stated during an all-hands internal meeting on Wednesday that the company's annualized recurring revenue in July exceeded that of the entire second quarter. "And the second quarter itself was quite respectable," Friar added. Board Chairman Bret Taylor also attended the meeting.

Previously, revenue data released by OpenAI in April showed that its Annualized Recurring Revenue (ARR) for 2026 was $25 billion. Estimates indicate that the ARR for the second quarter (April–June) ranged from $25 billion to $42 billion, meaning the net new ARR added in the second quarter totaled approximately $17 billion.

Adding this to the existing $42 billion by the end of June, OpenAI's ARR approached $60 billion by the end of July, narrowing the gap with Anthropic. Previous tracking by TickerTrends showed that Anthropic's ARR for 2026 was approximately $74.1 billion.

This statement comes as OpenAI faces fierce competition from Anthropic and a batch of low-cost open-source models. The company is actively signaling business health to employees while accumulating valuation support for a potential large-scale IPO.

Growth Engines: GPT-5.6, Enterprise Agents, and Codex

Friar and Taylor attributed the momentum of this round of growth to three main lines during the meeting: the release of the GPT-5.6 series models, the new enterprise-oriented AI agent product ChatGPT Work, and the rapid adoption of the AI coding tool Codex.

Taylor admitted at the meeting that OpenAI had once lagged behind Anthropic in the programming market and needed to catch up. However, he expressed encouragement regarding Codex's growth momentum. "You will see that those who deeply use Claude Code eventually face high bills and start looking for alternatives," Taylor said.

According to The Information, citing insiders in March this year, OpenAI's annualized revenue had already surpassed $25 billion at that time. Since then, with the explosive growth of Codex, the revenue curve has steepened significantly.

Competitive Pressure: Anthropic Valuation Overtakes, Gap Still Narrowing

Behind OpenAI's accelerated growth lies an increasingly fierce market battle. Anthropic surpassed OpenAI in valuation earlier this year and announced in May that its revenue run rate had exceeded $47 billion—while the company's total revenue for the full year 2025 was approximately $10 billion. Anthropic's Claude Code tool rapidly gained popularity among developers and is considered the core driver of its revenue surge.

Meanwhile, open-source models from China continue to exert pressure. Earlier this month, China's Moonshot AI released Kimi K3, claiming to surpass the flagship systems of OpenAI and Anthropic in certain benchmarks, while being available at a lower cost.

Taylor frankly acknowledged Anthropic's strong performance at the beginning of the year during the meeting, but simultaneously emphasized that OpenAI is regaining the initiative.

IPO Prospects: $852 Billion Valuation Awaits Market Test

OpenAI is currently valued at $852 billion and is under performance pressure commensurate with this figure. The company secretly submitted IPO applications to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in June, synchronously with Anthropic, but neither party has disclosed a specific listing timetable.

Regarding infrastructure investment, OpenAI disclosed to investors in February this year that it plans to cumulatively invest approximately $600 billion in computing power by 2030. According to a CNBC report earlier this week, the company is currently negotiating with NVIDIA for financial support of up to $250 billion to lease a large AI data center in Ohio.

To support the aforementioned massive infrastructure expenditure, OpenAI needs to continuously expand its enterprise and developer user base to generate sufficient revenue cash flow. The July revenue data may become one of the most powerful arguments in its IPO roadshow.

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