OpenAI President Says Company Could Be Ready for IPO in 2027

What Brockman Said

OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman said on Wednesday (November 4) that the company could be ready to go public in 2027. The statement was made at a Wall Street Journal technology conference and reported by TechCrunch on Thursday (November 5).

Asked directly whether OpenAI would be ready for an IPO next year, Brockman answered without hesitation.

I think so. Yes.

Greg Brockman, OpenAI presidentfoto: TechCrunch · CC BY 2.0

He then explained the moment of confidence the company is experiencing.

We've been very clear this year that we want to go public when we feel is the right time for us, and I feel extremely good about the business. I feel like we've made so much progress this year, and I've honestly never felt more confident in what we're doing.

Greg Brockman, OpenAI presidentfoto: TechCrunch · CC BY 2.0

It's worth noting the conditional: Brockman spoke of the company "could be ready," not a confirmed IPO date. This is a signal of intent and financial health, not a formal announcement of going public.

The Enterprise Business Turnaround in 2026

Brockman detailed OpenAI's trajectory in the corporate market throughout the year. According to him, the first and second quarters of 2026 were "pretty rough," a period in which the company wasn't even part of the conversation around agentic coding, territory dominated by Anthropic's Claude Code.

We had Codex, but no one was talking about it, and I think that we just kept our heads down and executed.

Greg Brockman, OpenAI presidentfoto: TechCrunch · CC BY 2.0

In the third quarter, the picture changed: OpenAI's annualized revenue grew 70% over the period, driven by a doubling of revenue coming from the enterprise segment. Before, enterprise accounted for about 30% of the company's total revenue; now it's the largest share. Brockman cited a recent partnership with JPMorgan Chase as an example of the kind of client the company has started closing deals with.

He also described the shift in market perception. A year ago, he said, OpenAI "wasn't really even in the enterprise game" and was seen as a consumer company, with potential clients questioning whether there was real commitment to the corporate segment. Today, according to him, "it's so different."

A Race to IPO Between the Two Largest AI Labs

OpenAI's timing doesn't exist in isolation. In the same batch of TechCrunch news this week, another report, citing the Financial Times, points out that Anthropic is expected to receive a credit rating considered "junk" by rating agencies following its own IPO process. In other words, OpenAI's direct competitor is also moving toward the public market.

This creates a scenario in which the two most valuable generative AI labs in the world could test the stock market's appetite for AI companies within a close time frame. For institutional investors, banks, and funds that today buy stakes in these companies' multibillion-dollar private rounds, going public completely changes the benchmark for liquidity and financial transparency.

What This Means for Those Raising AI Capital in Brazil

For Brazilian AI startup founders, the effect isn't direct, but it's real on at least three fronts:

• Valuation comparables: when OpenAI and Anthropic have public multiples of revenue and growth, venture capital funds that invest in AI in Brazil will have a concrete benchmark for pricing local rounds, instead of relying only on private rounds reported by the press.
• Investor exit timeline: a successful IPO from either company reinforces the thesis that AI businesses can exit the private phase with returns, which tends to unlock capital from funds that are currently holding back checks while waiting for liquidity signals in the sector.
• Competitive pressure in enterprise: OpenAI's pivot to the corporate segment, with cases like JPMorgan Chase, competes directly with Brazilian startups that sell AI copilots and agents to large companies. The more OpenAI (and Anthropic) professionalize enterprise sales, the harder it becomes for a domestic player to be the default choice for a large bank or retailer.

There's also a point about technical dependency that matters to those deciding on technology, not just capital: the competition between Codex (OpenAI) and Claude Code (Anthropic) for space in agentic coding shows how quickly market leadership can change hands in AI. Brazilian startups that build products on top of a single vendor's API run the risk of seeing today's competitive advantage turn into a commodity tomorrow, as the market leader changes quarter to quarter.

What's Still Open

Brockman gave no fixed date, didn't confirm any paperwork filed for a public offering, and didn't mention a target valuation. "Could be ready" is a statement of operational confidence, not an investment bank's timeline.

Nor does the reported statement detail which exchange, corporate structure, or offering size OpenAI would pursue. For those following the sector in Brazil, the most concrete signal for now is the growth data: a 70% increase in annualized revenue in one quarter and the shift from consumer to enterprise are metrics any AI founder can use as a benchmark for the pace investors expect at the growth stage.