OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar informed employees that the company's annualized recurring revenue (ARR) in July surpassed its total revenue for the second quarter. The announcement was made during an internal meeting, aiming to reassure staff about the business's health amidst emerging competition from rivals like Anthropic and various open-source alternatives. Friar and board chair Bret Taylor attributed the growth to the release of the company's GPT-5.6 series of models, its new enterprise agent ChatGPT Work, and the increasing adoption of its AI coding tool, Codex. OpenAI is under pressure to justify its valuation as it prepares for a potential IPO, facing a competitive landscape that includes Anthropic and Google.