OPay processed $358 billion in gross transaction value in 2025, more than twice the volume recorded a year earlier, as the Nigerian-focused fintech expanded its customer base, lending operations and revenue ahead of a planned listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

The company’s transaction value rose 115% from $166.2 billion in 2024, according to an investment document reviewed by Nairametrics. The increase provides a measure of the scale OPay has reached in Nigeria’s increasingly digital payments market, where mobile wallets, transfers and merchant payments have become major channels for financial transactions.

The growth was accompanied by a significant increase in users and lending activity, strengthening OPay’s case for a potential U.S. public offering that could value the company at about $4 billion.

OPay’s monthly active users increased 57% to 39.3 million in 2025 from 25.1 million a year earlier.

Daily active users also climbed 50% to 22.7 million in the fourth quarter, giving the company a daily-to-monthly active user ratio of 57.8%. The ratio suggests that a substantial proportion of OPay’s customer base uses the platform frequently rather than only for occasional transactions.

The company said about 70% of its Nigerian wallet monthly active users were using more than five product use cases as of March 2026. Those customers recorded 96% next-month retention, indicating that deeper engagement with multiple products is associated with strong customer retention.

That is strategically important as OPay seeks to move beyond payments into a broader digital financial-services platform.

Lending Business Becomes A Major Growth Engine

OPay’s lending business expanded even faster than its payments operations. New loans originated surged 285%, from $243.9 million in 2024 to $938.3 million in 2025. The number of unique quarterly borrowers in Nigeria increased 119% to 4.6 million.

The expansion gives OPay another source of revenue and provides the company with an opportunity to monetize the large customer base it has built through its payments platform.

However, rapid credit expansion also brings greater exposure to credit risk. The ability to maintain loan growth while controlling defaults and losses will therefore be an important consideration for investors assessing OPay ahead of a potential IPO.

OPay’s financial performance improved sharply alongside the increase in transaction volumes.

Revenue rose 161% to $536.3 million in 2025 from $205.7 million in 2024.

The company also moved from a $35.1 million operating loss in 2024 to operating income of $107.1 million in 2025. EBITDA swung from a $33.6 million loss to a $113.1 million profit.

The improvement gives OPay a stronger financial profile as it approaches the public markets, particularly at a time when investors have become more selective about high-growth fintech companies that have yet to demonstrate a path to sustainable profitability.

The investment document noted that net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders differs from operating profitability because of non-cash accretion associated with redeemable convertible preferred shares. Those preferred shares are expected to convert into ordinary shares following a qualified IPO.

That conversion could have implications for the company’s share count and the ownership position of existing investors when OPay eventually goes public.

Nigeria Generates Nearly 90% of Revenue

Nigeria remains overwhelmingly OPay’s most important market. The country accounted for 88.1% of the company’s revenue in 2025. Indonesia contributed 9.9%, Egypt 1.6%, while other markets accounted for 0.4%.

OPay operates in Nigeria, Indonesia, Egypt and Pakistan and combines payments, savings, credit and other financial services through its mobile-first platform.

Its position in Nigeria is supported by its licenses as a Mobile Money Operator and Microfinance Bank. The company said its platform achieved a first-attempt transaction success rate of more than 99% in the fourth quarter of 2025.

The concentration of revenue in Nigeria is both a strength and a potential risk for investors. It demonstrates OPay’s strong position in one of Africa’s largest financial markets, but it also leaves the company’s earnings highly exposed to changes in Nigeria’s regulatory environment, consumer spending, financial-sector rules and macroeconomic conditions.

U.S. Listing Raises Questions Over Nigerian Market

OPay is reportedly targeting a valuation of about $4 billion for its proposed U.S. IPO, with Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase appointed to manage the offering. The listing is expected later this year, although its timing and final valuation could change depending on market conditions.

The decision to seek a U.S. listing has generated debate in Nigeria because the country accounts for nearly 90% of OPay’s revenue.

The issue has also entered the policy discussion around Nigeria’s capital market. Temi Popoola, chief executive of Nigerian Exchange Group, recently urged President Bola Tinubu to support policies encouraging major companies operating in Nigeria, particularly high-growth fintech companies, to list domestically.

The debate highlights a broader challenge for Nigeria’s capital market. Local companies that achieve substantial scale have access to deeper pools of capital overseas, potentially depriving the Nigerian exchange of some of its most valuable technology and consumer businesses.

For OPay, however, a U.S. listing could provide access to a much larger pool of international technology and fintech investors and potentially give the company a higher valuation than it might achieve on a less liquid domestic market.

The fintech is already looking beyond the IPO, setting a long-term target of reaching one billion users, supporting 10 million merchants and creating one million jobs across its markets.

Elizabeth Wang, OPay’s chief commercial officer, said the company’s strategy is no longer limited to operating a payments platform but is focused on using technology to broaden access to financial services and participation in the digital economy.

The scale of OPay’s 2025 numbers is seen as an indication that the company has moved well beyond the early-stage fintech model.

Tesla has unveiled plans for a $10.1 billion solar manufacturing facility in Texas, providing the clearest indication yet of Elon Musk’s ambition to build a large-scale domestic solar supply chain capable of supporting the company’s growing energy, artificial intelligence, and robotics operations.

The proposed factory, code-named Project Crystal Sun, would be built in Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston, according to a tax-incentive application filed with Texas authorities. Tesla said the facility could begin commercial operations in the first quarter of 2029 and employ more than 9,700 people full-time.

The project has not yet been approved, and Tesla is also considering another U.S. location. The company said the Texas site would be less competitive without the economic incentives it is seeking from state and local authorities.

If the incentives are approved, Tesla expects construction to begin this year and be completed in 2028.

The filing does not specify the plant’s planned production capacity in gigawatts, making it difficult to determine precisely how much of the U.S. solar market Tesla intends to supply. It does, however, offer important details about the depth of the company’s proposed manufacturing operations.

Tesla said the facility would produce “photovoltaic solar cells and/or assembled solar modules” and listed equipment associated with several stages further upstream in the solar manufacturing process.

The project therefore appears to go beyond simply assembling finished solar panels. If developed as described, it could give Tesla greater control over the production of components used in solar generation, potentially reducing reliance on external suppliers. The proposal also provides context for Musk’s increasingly ambitious plans for U.S. solar manufacturing.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in January, Musk said Tesla and SpaceX were working separately toward manufacturing 100 gigawatts of solar power annually in the United States.

“The SpaceX and Tesla team, both separately, are working to build to 100 GW a year of solar power in the US of manufactured solar power,” Musk said. “That’ll probably take us three years or something.”

The scale of that ambition would be substantial relative to the existing U.S. manufacturing base. The Solar Energy Industries Association reported in August that the country had 74.1 gigawatts of operational solar-module manufacturing capacity, enough to supply about 170% of expected U.S. demand in 2026.

Tesla’s proposed facility could therefore represent a major expansion of domestic manufacturing if the company ultimately builds capacity approaching the scale suggested by Musk.

The solar initiative also fits into Tesla’s broader strategy around electricity and computing. Musk has been positioning solar power as an important source of energy for Tesla’s artificial intelligence and robotics ambitions. The company’s AI operations require substantial computing infrastructure, while the expansion of autonomous systems and robotics could increase demand for electricity across Tesla’s operations.

Tesla said in its second-quarter shareholder presentation in July that site selection, preparation, construction and equipment procurement for solar and semiconductor manufacturing had progressed.

The solar push is also taking place against a broader increase in electricity demand associated with artificial intelligence.

Large technology companies are building power-intensive data centers to support AI models and services. Hyperscalers such as Meta are already developing dedicated energy projects around their data-center operations. In Louisiana, for example, a solar project is being built to help supply power to Meta’s large Hyperion AI data center.

That connection could become important for Tesla if the company seeks to combine its energy business with its AI ambitions. Solar generation, battery storage and other power infrastructure could become strategic assets as technology companies confront constraints on electricity supply.

Tesla’s proposed factory would also deepen the company’s involvement in an energy market that has become necessary to its overall business. Tesla already operates an energy-storage business and sells solar products, but the proposed investment would represent a much larger commitment to manufacturing solar components in the United States.

The scale of the proposed capital investment makes the project’s economics particularly important.

The caveat of the incentive sought by Tesla means the $10.1 billion proposal should not be viewed as a finalized investment. The EV giant must still secure the requested incentives and make a final site decision before the project can proceed.

Still, the application provides a clearer picture of the industrial infrastructure Tesla could build if Musk’s solar ambitions move forward. A factory employing more than 9,700 workers and producing solar cells and modules would represent a major expansion of Tesla’s manufacturing footprint while creating a new link between the company’s automotive, energy and AI strategies.

The proposed facility also shows the AI boom is increasingly extending beyond chips and data centers. As computing demand rises, technology companies face a parallel need for reliable and abundant electricity. Solar generation and energy storage are becoming part of the infrastructure discussion alongside semiconductors, transmission networks, and conventional power plants.

Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek on Thursday formally released its V4 Pro model, stepping up its efforts to regain momentum in China’s competitive AI market as the company expands its workforce, computing capacity and access to capital.

DeepSeek said its V4-Pro-0813 model delivers major improvements in AI-agent capabilities and is available through its API, app and web platforms. The company also announced higher API prices for both V4 Pro and V4 Flash, alongside a new pricing structure that differentiates between peak and off-peak usage.

The pricing changes mark an important shift for a company whose rapid rise was initially built in part on the ability to offer powerful AI models at relatively low cost. As demand for advanced models increases, DeepSeek is now seeking to balance competitive pricing with the substantial computing expenses required to operate increasingly capable systems.

The V4 Pro launch will be closely watched after DeepSeek’s less expensive V4 Flash model unexpectedly outperformed an April preview of V4 Pro in several independent tests.

That result was notable because the Pro version is intended to be the company’s more capable model. The performance of Flash suggested DeepSeek had made substantial improvements to its underlying technology between the preview and the formal release of V4 Pro.

The latest model also arrives at a critical point for DeepSeek, which has faced growing competition from a rapidly expanding group of Chinese AI developers.

DeepSeek became one of China’s most closely watched AI companies after its R1 reasoning model gained global attention in early 2025. The model triggered a broader debate over whether advanced AI systems could be developed with substantially lower costs and computing requirements than those associated with leading U.S. technology companies.

That early advantage has since come under pressure.

Chinese competitors, including Moonshot AI, Zhipu AI, MiniMax, Alibaba, and ByteDance, have released increasingly capable models, narrowing the technological and commercial gap with DeepSeek.

The competitive environment has also changed the challenge facing DeepSeek. Its initial breakthrough established the company as a major AI player, but maintaining that position requires substantially more resources as model development becomes more expensive and rivals release new systems at a rapid pace.

From AI Breakthrough to Capital-Intensive Business

DeepSeek is now preparing for a major expansion in both funding and infrastructure. Reuters reported in July that the company was planning a fundraising round at a valuation of about $74 billion, just weeks after raising approximately $7.4 billion in its first external financing round in June.

The fundraising represented a significant departure for DeepSeek, which had historically operated with limited reliance on outside capital.

The shift shows how developing frontier models requires access to large quantities of advanced computing hardware, data-center capacity and specialized engineering talent. Even companies that initially distinguish themselves through capital-efficient development must spend heavily to train, deploy and improve models at scale.

DeepSeek’s planned expansion reflects those pressures. The company has said it intends to at least double its workforce across several departments, including teams focused on data centers and AI agents.

The emphasis on AI agents is notable as the industry is increasingly moving beyond chatbots that simply respond to prompts toward systems capable of planning tasks, using software tools and completing multi-step assignments with limited human intervention.

DeepSeek’s decision to highlight agent capabilities in V4 Pro therefore puts the company directly into one of the fastest-developing areas of AI competition.

DeepSeek Explores Its Own AI Chips

The startup is also seeking greater control over the hardware underpinning its AI systems. Reuters reported in July that DeepSeek had stepped up private recruitment of chip-design engineers to develop its own AI processor.

Developing proprietary chips could eventually reduce the company’s dependence on external suppliers, including Nvidia and Huawei, while giving DeepSeek greater control over the hardware needed to train and run its models.

The effort is part of a broader push across China’s technology industry to reduce exposure to foreign semiconductor supply chains. Access to advanced AI chips has become a strategic issue as U.S. export controls restrict the availability of some high-end processors to Chinese companies.

Building competitive AI hardware, however, is considerably more difficult than designing an AI model. It requires semiconductor design expertise, software optimization, manufacturing partnerships, and access to advanced fabrication capacity.

Many believe that if DeepSeek succeeds, its hardware initiative could provide a long-term advantage by allowing the company to optimize computing infrastructure around its own models.

The V4 Pro launch therefore represents more than another model release.

DeepSeek is attempting to move from an AI startup that gained global attention through a technological breakthrough into a larger company capable of sustaining an expensive development and commercialization cycle. Its higher API prices, planned fundraising, workforce expansion, and investment in computing infrastructure all point in the same direction: the company is preparing for a much larger operating footprint.

The challenge is that DeepSeek no longer operates in the relatively open field that existed when R1 first attracted global attention. Chinese competitors are releasing models at a rapid pace, while U.S. companies continue to advance their own systems and expand the capabilities of AI agents.

That makes the performance and adoption of V4 Pro particularly important.