Although revenue increased to about $40 billion, it has already been surpassed by Anthropic.<\/p>\n
By Long Yue, Wallstreet CN<\/p>\n
A company valued at $852 billion, sprinting towards a trillion-dollar IPO, is being dragged down by its own internal chaos.<\/p>\n
Since the beginning of this year, OpenAI has undergone nearly five organizational restructurings. Executives have left one after another, the safety team has been disbanded, and employees generally feel exhausted. Meanwhile, the IPO originally expected to be completed this year has been quietly postponed to next year.<\/p>\n
On August 15, according to the latest report from the UK Financial Times, multiple informed sources stated that repeated personnel reshuffles have left some employees feeling “frustrated” with this globally most valuable private tech company.<\/p>\n
Executives Leave One After Another, Departure Wave Continues<\/p>\n
This week, Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser announced her departure. She only took office last December, responsible for expanding enterprise client business, with a tenure of less than a year.<\/p>\n
This is the latest instance in a recent series of executive departures. According to previous disclosures, former Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap and Head of Ethics Chlo\u00e9 Bakalar have both left, with tenures also less than a year.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Fidji Simo, regarded as CEO Sam Altman’s “second-in-command,” transitioned to a part-time advisor last month after sick leave. However, according to two informed sources, she still communicates with employees almost daily. A person familiar with the matter stated plainly: “She is still manipulating things behind the scenes.” This person also described that executives are vying for Altman’s attention, with a thick atmosphere of internal “politics.” OpenAI stated that Simo is performing her duties normally according to her advisor responsibilities.<\/p>\n
A noteworthy pattern is emerging: multiple executives were transferred to newly created or vaguely defined positions before formally leaving. Lightcap was transferred to a “Special Projects” role in April, and Kevin Weil and Josh Achiam also left successively after undergoing similar transitional arrangements.<\/p>\n
Safety Team Disbanded, Internal Concerns Rise<\/p>\n
At the end of last month, OpenAI disbanded its “preparedness” team. According to multiple informed sources, this team was responsible for evaluating whether AI models could cause severe or catastrophic risks and studying countermeasures. After the disbandment, related responsibilities were dispersed to existing teams, with senior employees responsible for different areas such as biosecurity and cybersecurity respectively.<\/p>\n
This is one of the last pieces of the puzzle under OpenAI’s original research-led architecture. Previously, the “AGI readiness” and “mission alignment” teams had been disbanded one after another. In 2024, Jan Leike, who co-led the “superalignment” team, resigned and publicly stated that safety issues were “taking a back seat to dazzling products.”<\/p>\n
preparedness team lead Dylan Scandinaro has shifted to researching the safety implications of “recursive self-improvement” AI\u2014systems capable of self-improving abilities and training other models. Co-founder Greg Brockman stated that OpenAI’s technological progress requires “more robust” safeguards, and the company has made adjustments to “more deeply integrate” research, safety, and security into model development.<\/p>\n
However, the successive departures of multiple safety field personnel such as Bakalar, Josh Achiam, and Johannes Heidecke have exacerbated internal unease. An informed source admitted: “This is a bit worrying; there is now a sense of urgency that we must get this right.” Another person described that there is a “lingering sense of responsibility and fear internally, worried that we are not yet ready.”<\/p>\n
In addition, OpenAI recently exposed a safety incident\u2014one of its models infiltrated another company’s system during an internal network capability test, further exacerbating external doubts about its safety controls.<\/p>\n
Revenue Growth, But Surpassed by Anthropic<\/p>\n
At the business level, OpenAI’s annualized revenue increased from $24 billion at the end of last year to about $40 billion this month, a significant growth. According to informed sources, most of this growth comes from the new GPT-5.6 model released five weeks ago.<\/p>\n
However, competitor Anthropic’s growth rate is faster. According to data cited by the Financial Times from informed sources, Anthropic’s annualized revenue jumped from $9 billion at the end of 2025 to $47 billion in May this year, an increase of about five times, and has since maintained a similar growth trajectory, surpassing OpenAI.<\/p>\n
It should be noted that both companies estimate full-year revenue based on recent performance, and there are differences in revenue accounting methods, so direct comparison has certain limitations.<\/p>\n
IPO Postponed, Employees Cash Out and Leave<\/p>\n
OpenAI’s IPO was originally expected to be completed this year, but according to informed sources, it has now been postponed to next year, at which time the valuation could be as high as $1 trillion.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the company recently completed a share buyback of nearly $7 billion, allowing employees to cash out at a valuation of $852 billion. According to current and former employees, some individuals cashed out amounts exceeding $10 million.<\/p>\n
However, the cost of frequent restructuring is becoming apparent. Two informed sources stated that employees generally feel “exhausted” and “frustrated,” and some view the share buyback as an exit.<\/p>\n
Investors have mixed views on this. Some investors are concerned about the high turnover rate and the company’s lack of focus; others characterize this personnel adjustment as a normal cleanup before listing. An investor holding a large number of OpenAI shares stated: “I think organizing the team before listing is not uncommon. You need to be clear about who your team is. Some departures are for health reasons, some are cleanup.”<\/p>\n
OpenAI stated that the company is advancing at an “extraordinary speed” and is “not afraid to undergo organizational change.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although revenue increased to about $40 billion, it has already been surpassed by Anthropic. By Long Yue, Wallstreet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[69672,69674,69669,38873,69675,69670,29143,69673,69676,157,8576,3152,69671],"class_list":["post-142299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-openai","tag-ai-industry-insights","tag-bitcoin-analysis","tag-curated-articles","tag-editors-picks","tag-ethereum-ecosystem","tag-in-depth-cryptocurrency-analysis","tag-industry-trends","tag-investment-research-reports","tag-macro-strategy","tag-openai","tag-techflow","tag-technology-stocks","tag-u-s-stock-market-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}