Closing Bell · Sep 29, 2026
With Sarah Friar, CFO of OpenAI
OpenAI's business-to-business revenue doubled in the third quarter, Sarah Friar said, and total revenue grew more than 70% from the prior quarter.
OpenAI had just used its DevDay keynote to unveil dots, a proactive AI agent, and Friar spent the interview on something less flashy than the product demo: how fast the business is actually growing, and why the company is still holding back its most capable model.
"The clearest thing for me as a CFO is no compute means no revenue."
Friar became OpenAI's chief financial officer in 2024. She had spent six years running Nextdoor as chief executive and, before that, was CFO of Square, now Block, where she helped take the company public.
The full segment is covered here so you can skip it.
Here are the 5 takeaways that matter.
Key Takeaways
dots is meant to be OpenAI's next revenue driver after chat and reasoning
It already plugs into email, calendar and Slack, and Friar said the whole 1.2 billion-person consumer base is next
Her pitch against Meta's Muse rests on memory and distribution, not a head start on the idea
"1.2 billion consumers all the way to 2.5 million enterprises"
OpenAI's revenue grew more than 70% quarter over quarter, and its B2B business doubled
A new $100 tier is meant to get small businesses working past a five-hour daily cap
OpenAI is still holding back its most advanced model for safety reasons
"We don't have a [new version of] Astra right now," she said, even as cheaper models keep shipping
Cyber defense, not chat quality, is what enterprise customers ask her about most
She described a "defender window" that OpenAI is racing to keep open
Her CFO logic for the buildout: no compute means no revenue, so OpenAI is locking in supply and building its own chips
1. Dots, Not Just Chat
Asked what OpenAI's new agent product means for revenue, Friar framed it as the next step after chat and reasoning models.
dots is meant to work in the background and flag things on its own
"Chat started the asking of AI. We got reasoning that helped with doing dots is now proactivity." — Sarah Friar
She said the appeal for business customers is that dots can be pointed at the tools a company already uses.
"We think it's going to be very powerful in the enterprise, particularly because of all the ability to plug into the apps that matter most to you." — Sarah Friar
"So, it can go to your email, it can go to your calendar, it can go to your Slack or wherever you work." — Sarah Friar
For now, dots is rolling out inside OpenAI's paid and enterprise products. Friar said the company's ambition is to bring it to consumers as well.
"But absolutely our vision is to bring this to our whole consumer base as well, 1.2 billion people around the world." — Sarah Friar
