OpenAI CFO Suggests Delaying IPO to 2027 as ChatGPT Weekly Active Users Fall Short of 1 Billion

According to monitoring by Dongcha Beating, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar privately suggested postponing the IPO to 2027, citing that the company has not yet met the financial reporting standards required for public companies. CEO Altman, however, hopes to go public as soon as the fourth quarter of 2026. The two previously issued a joint statement claiming they were ‘completely aligned’ on computing power procurement issues, but multiple insiders have confirmed the existence of this disagreement. The divergence stems from slowing growth. OpenAI set a target of 1 billion weekly active users for ChatGPT by the end of last year but has failed to reach it, and has yet to announce a breakthrough on this milestone. By December 2025, weekly active users were at 800 million, rising to 900 million in February 2026, with growth clearly slowing from a high base. Google Gemini has captured market share on the consumer side, while Anthropic’s Claude Code is gaining traction in the developer market. OpenAI has missed several monthly revenue targets earlier this year. The annualized revenue is about $25 billion, while Anthropic surpassed $30 billion in April, overtaking OpenAI as the revenue leader with approximately one-quarter of the training costs. Computing power expenditures are also being revised. Last October, Altman showcased a slide during a live stream stating a $1.4 trillion commitment for new computing power. Friar later clarified to investors that the actual plan is to spend $600 billion by 2030. In recent months, she further warned management that if revenue growth does not keep pace, the company may be unable to fulfill future computing power contracts. Investment banks have told Anthropic and OpenAI that whoever goes public first will define this new industry, with early entrants gaining access to substantial waiting funds. Goldman Sachs is expected to act as the lead underwriter for OpenAI’s IPO. OpenAI executives have engaged with exchanges to discuss listing plans but have not yet initiated the formal process. Friar previously experienced a similar situation at Square: during the sluggish IPO market of 2015, investor interest was low, and there was even consideration to withdraw the IPO on pricing night, ultimately listing at $9 per share with an approximate valuation of $3 billion (half of the previous round’s valuation), releasing less than 10% of shares. Three years later, the stock price surged.