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Sarah Friar, CFO of OpenAI, told my colleague WSJ Tech & Media Editor Sarah Krouse that the company isn’t getting ready for a potential IPO, at least not yet.
Speaking at WSJ’s Tech Live event in California, Friar said the AI giant’s conversion to a new structure doesn’t portend an imminent public offering as the company prioritizes growth and R&D over profitability.
“IPO is not on the cards right now,” Friar said. “We are continuing to get the company into a state of constantly stepping up into the scale we are at, so I don’t want to get wrapped around an IPO axle.”
The company has discussed a public listing as soon as 2027, The Wall Street Journal reported.
On how OpenAI thinks about its investments, she said: “We are still in such hyper growth mode that it doesn't make sense for me to overindex on the outcome at the bottom of the P&L. While I can continue to fundraise, and why I can continue to see my business grow at for example 9X year over year.”
“Now what I do need to make sure is that the underlying business is healthy. So, for example, I do spend time focused on the gross margins of both our consumer business and our enterprise business, and I will tell you they're very healthy gross margins, much very akin to good software companies.”
News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI.
For the full comments, watch here.
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