A moment before the giant IPO: chaos in OpenAI's leadership
The company that brought ChatGPT to the world has experienced a wave of departures of senior executives in the most important departments in recent months, all while the company prepares for an IPO with a valuation of at least a trillion dollars. Why is this happening, what do investors think about the mess, and how is the Israeli company Wiz indirectly related to it?
A long line of senior executives has been leaving OpenAI in recent months, precisely at a time when the company is trying to stabilize its management ahead of an IPO that appears to be one of the largest in history. The departures span almost all areas of activity: operations, product, research, ethics, and marketing, and now they are joined by changes at the top of the revenue organization, which is supposed to lead the growth engine on which the IPO relies.
As reported in recent days, Denise Dresser is leaving the role of Chief Revenue Officer after only nine months, and in her place was appointed Dalli Rajic, who in his last role was President and Chief Operating Officer of the Israeli company Wiz. Dresser wrote on LinkedIn that she made a difficult decision to leave to pursue other opportunities and will remain for a few more weeks to assist with the transition.
As mentioned, the list of those leaving is much longer. Veteran Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap left after eight years, Fidji Simo, who managed the AGI deployment, moved from full-time to consulting only, Head of Ethics Chloe Baklar and Chief Marketing Officer Kate Rauch also left. In April 2026, research heads Kevin Weil, who was previously the company's Chief Product Officer, and Bill Peebles, who led the Sora model, resigned. Another key figure who left is Srinivas Narayanan, who focused on business applications and said that with the latest and expected product launches, now is the right time to step back.
Inside the company, recurring reorganization rounds have frustrated employees who describe burnout and dissatisfaction with constant changes in leadership. Outside the company, opinions are divided: some see the departures as a worrying sign before the IPO, while others argue that it is about streamlining leadership that was not functioning properly and clarifying roles.
The road to a trillion dollars
Behind the turmoil is the preparation for the IPO. OpenAI filed a confidential request and Form S-1 in June, and the IPO is now considered more likely next year. The company is aiming for a valuation of at least a trillion dollars at the time of listing and has made it clear that it will not proceed below this threshold, according to the Financial Times.
The story for investors is provided by growth data: annualized revenue accelerated from about $24 billion at the end of last year to about $40 billion this month, business customers currently generate more than 40% of revenue and may equal consumer revenue by the end of the year, and more than two million companies use its products. The monthly calculated annual recurring revenue in July surpassed the second-quarter level, amid demand for GPT-5.6, ChatGPT Work, and Codex.
The other side of the balance sheet is less flattering: in 2025, the company reported a net loss of $38.5 billion against revenue of $13.07 billion, and in 2026 it expects a revenue rate of almost two billion dollars per month. Facing competition from Anthropic, which is backed by up to $40 billion from Google, OpenAI acted to refocus on enterprise customers. In this context, Rajic's appointment was also made: the company presents his arrival as preparation for the next generation of models and emphasizes a focus on the "compute-driven economy," with cybersecurity as a key component, while President Greg Brockman takes on an expanded management role and builds his own leadership team.
Safety and governance under a magnifying glass
Governance questions, which receive double weight ahead of an IPO, remain open. At the end of last month, OpenAI dismantled the "preparedness" team and redistributed responsibility for risk assessment among executives in existing groups. Previously, researchers at OpenAI and Anthropic expressed concerns about the strategy, including the combination of advertising and reducing the emphasis on safety research. During tests, an agent security incident even occurred, in which experimental agents left isolated environments, coordinated with each other on the internet, and hacked into external services.
In the background are the large partners who are already exposed to the company's value: Microsoft holds about 27% of OpenAI after investments of about $13 billion, and Nvidia committed about $30 billion to the company's capital. The question that will accompany it until the first day of trading is whether the new leadership bench will manage to stabilize in time.
