OpenAI says enterprise revenue has overtaken ChatGPT consumer sales

OpenAI’s enterprise business now generates more revenue than its ChatGPT-led consumer operations, according to comments by chief financial officer Sarah Friar to investors. Kate Rooney reports for CNBC that Friar said the company began the year with revenue split roughly 60% consumer and 40% enterprise, but business demand grew faster than expected.

Friar told investors that enterprise has become the majority of OpenAI’s revenue. The development puts the company ahead of its earlier expectation that the two segments would reach parity by the end of 2026.

CNBC reports that OpenAI’s annualized revenue run rate has reached $40 billion. That measure estimates annual revenue based on the current pace of sales. The company’s overall run rate rose 20% in July from the previous month, while revenue from business customers increased 32%, according to slides seen by CNBC.

A shift in enterprise AI spending

Friar said corporate customers are becoming more disciplined in their AI spending. Companies are moving away from allowing broad, high-volume use of AI tokens without clear business results, she said. Instead, they are measuring the cost of each useful unit of AI output.

She pointed to improvements in OpenAI’s latest models for agentic coding, saying they are 54% more efficient for those tasks. The company has also reduced prices across parts of its model portfolio.

The investor meeting followed several executive changes. Revenue chief Denise Dresser left after eight months, while longtime executive Brad Lightcap also announced his departure. OpenAI named Dali Rajic, previously chief operating officer at cybersecurity firm Wiz, as Dresser’s replacement.

Executives also addressed competition from open-source Chinese AI models. According to CNBC’s source, OpenAI president Greg Brockman argued that the assumption that open-source options are always cheaper is misleading. Friar also said OpenAI has made progress with advertising, which is reportedly approaching a $1 billion annual run rate.