OpenAI Replaces CRO After 8 Months Ahead of IPO... Accelerates Enterprise Revenue Growth

Dali Rajic, President of Wiz, Joins OpenAI

Enterprise Client Revenue Up 32% in July

OpenAI, which is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO), has replaced its Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) in less than a year. The personnel decision is interpreted as an effort to accelerate revenue growth from enterprise clients amid intensifying competition with Anthropic in the enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) market.

Yonhap News Agency

On August 13 (local time), OpenAI announced that it has appointed Dali Rajic, President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Wiz, a cloud security company under Alphabet, as its new CRO.

Rajic succeeds Dennis DeRerser, who joined OpenAI as CRO in December 2025. DeRerser, formerly the CEO of Slack, is stepping down after about eight months and, after a transition period, plans to look for other opportunities.

This appointment follows a series of recent senior management reshuffles at OpenAI. Brad Lightcap, former COO, announced his departure on August 11 to start a new venture, and Fizza Simo, who oversaw OpenAI's core business operations, stepped down from her full-time role last month after taking a leave of absence due to health reasons. Former Chief Product Officer (CPO) Kevin Weil also left the company in April.

The recruitment of Rajic marks one of the first major executive appointments led by OpenAI President Greg Brockman, whose authority over business operations has expanded since Simo's departure.

Brockman stated in a blog post that day, "Dennis led the revenue organization during a critical formative period for the business," and added, "As the way AI technology is adopted changes rapidly, Dali's role will be to turn what we have learned into a repeatable operating framework."

OpenAI emphasized that a core task for its future enterprise business will be to demonstrate that customers are seeing real business outcomes commensurate with their AI spending. The company plans to focus on providing clients with 'measurable business impact' relative to their investment in AI.

OpenAI also expects Rajic's background in the cybersecurity industry to help drive its enterprise strategy. Brockman explained that, as companies are increasingly interested not only in adopting AI but also in defending against AI models with enhanced cyberattack capabilities, Rajic's expertise in security will be increasingly important.

OpenAI's revenue growth has recently accelerated. According to an internal memo shared by Brockman with employees, OpenAI's annualized revenue run rate in July 2026 increased by more than 20% compared to the previous month. Notably, the growth rate for enterprise client revenue reached 32%.

Meanwhile, OpenAI is facing fierce competition with Anthropic in the enterprise AI market. Earlier this year, Anthropic surpassed OpenAI in corporate valuation for the first time. Bloomberg reported that OpenAI is also stepping up efforts to secure enterprise clients.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.