Sarah Frier, CFO of OpenAI, speaks on CNBC’s Squawk Box at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 21, 2026.
Oscar Molina CNBC
At the end of a turbulent week for OpenAI’s leadership, Finance Director Sarah Friar held a meeting with investors on Friday to highlight the company’s growth in the enterprise space, which she said now accounts for more revenue than its ChatGPT-led consumer business.
“We started this year 60-40, but business has accelerated much faster than expected and we’ve now crossed that line,” Fryer said, according to a person who attended but requested anonymity to protect confidentiality. “Right now, the majority of our revenue is corporate.”
it is OpenAI Friar told CNBC earlier this year that it expects these businesses to reach parity by the end of 2026, which is earlier than the previous forecast. After Bloomberg first reported the numbers, CNBC confirmed that OpenAI’s annual revenue run rate had reached $40 billion.
OpenAI’s utilization rate increased 20% month-over-month in July, and enterprise customers “grew even faster” with a 32% increase, according to slides seen by CNBC.
Friday’s meeting was planned and held with current shareholders ahead of this week’s departure of executives, the person said. The announcement came a day after revenue chief Dennis Dresser resigned after just eight months on the job. Dresser spent more than 10 years sales force And until recently, he was the CEO of Slack. She said in a LinkedIn post that she was leaving to pursue other opportunities.
Two days ago, longtime executive Brad Lightcap said he was ending his eight-year tenure as ChatGPT creator to “start something new.”
OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman also attended Friday’s meeting, the person said. Mr. Brockman thanked Mr. Dresser for her contributions and building the company’s foundation and expressed excitement about replacing her with Dali Razik, former executive director of cybersecurity firm Wiz, which is now owned by the company, the people said. google.
Mr. Razik was introduced to OpenAI through Thrive founder Josh Kushner, said a person familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the hiring process.
Executives answered questions about the rise of the open source Chinese model, according to people in attendance. Brockman dismissed the competitive threat and said there was a misconception about open source being cheap. Executives were also asked about the timing of the IPO, but said they could not discuss it due to confidential filings with the SEC, the person added.
Frier highlighted revenue growth and said the company is adapting to changing customer behavior. The era of so-called token max is over. This means companies are no longer allowing their employees to rack up huge bills on AI without underperforming.
“Enterprise customers have shifted from token maxing to a focus on cost per unit of intelligence,” Frier said, according to people at the meeting. She highlighted that the latest models are “54% more efficient” at agent coding tasks, as well as recent price reductions for the company’s model suite.
Frier also said that OpenAI has “made great strides” in advertising, the person said, adding that the ad run rate is approaching $1 billion. The company began testing ads on ChatGPT in February.
Spotlight: OpenAI talent drain
