The company sells software that aggregates and analyses vast volumes of industrial data, such as machine sensors, to increase efficiency and safety. Last year, it launched its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool to boost productivity.

"We will be cash flow positive in 2024... Our objective from the beginning was to build the world's leading industrial software company and to list it in the United States," Lervik said in an interview during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos.

The timing of the listing depended both on Cognite's readiness and on the financial markets, but it could happen "in the next few years", possibly in 2025, he added.

The company, majority owned by Aker ASA, an Oslo-listed investment firm controlled by Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke, has attracted investments from Accel, TCV and Saudi Aramco since its 2016 inception.

In 2022, Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil firm, took a 7.4% stake in Cognite via its subsidiary Aramco Overseas Company B.V., valuing the Norwegian company at about $1.6 billion.

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(Reporting by Divya Chowdhury in Davos and Savio Shetty in Mumbai, writing by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik)