NEW YORK: ChatGPT maker OpenAI confidentially filed for a US initial public offering (IPO) recently, the company has said, joining rival Anthropic in a push toward the stock market as investors seek exposure to the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
OpenAI did not disclose the size or terms of the offering, and said a timeline has not yet been determined. “It may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company,” it said in a statement.
Reuters had reported that the AI giant is targeting a valuation of up to US$1 trillion in a stock market debut that could come as early as September.
At that valuation, OpenAI would set the stage for a trio of trillion-dollar-valuation companies debuting rapidly, which together are seen as the most consequential test of investor appetite for high-growth technology stocks in the last 10 years.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX was the first off the block, filing for an IPO that would rank as the largest in history if completed, with the company pursuing a US$75bil offering at a US$1.75 trillion valuation.
Anthropic, the company behind the viral coding assistant Claude Code, said on June 1 it had confidentially filed for a US IPO, weeks after raising US$65bil in a funding round that valued it at US$965bil.
“OpenAI is keeping options open as Anthropic edged ahead with its filing after a monster funding round,” said Michael Ashley Schulman, a partner at Cerity Partners.
On prediction markets, where traders wager on the outcome of future events, most participants had expected OpenAI to file for an IPO before Anthropic.
The IPOs of Anthropic and OpenAI would crystallise a transformative period for the technology industry and global markets, with AI rapidly emerging as the defining investment theme of the decade.
OpenAI said earlier this year that it was raising US$110bil at an US$840bil valuation from a roster of heavyweight backers including SoftBank, Amazon and Nvidia.
At the time, it also disclosed that ChatGPT had more than 900 million weekly active users and over 50 million consumer subscribers. The IPO filing follows OpenAI renegotiating its partnership with Microsoft, one of its earliest investors, which allowed the AI pioneer to forge new partnerships with firms such as Amazon.com and Alphabet’s Google.
The Windows maker’s early investment, totalling US$13bil since 2019, helped pave the way for OpenAI’s rapid rise and powered growth at Microsoft’s Azure cloud-computing business.
In March, OpenAI said it was generating US$2bil in monthly revenue and growing roughly four times faster than companies that defined the Internet and mobile eras, including Alphabet and Meta.
That compares with about US$1bil in quarterly revenue at the end of 2024.
OpenAI told investors during its most recent fundraising round that it did not expect to be profitable until 2030, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Yet, the industry OpenAI launched has quickly become crowded and investors are scrutinising whether the AI sector’s meteoric rise can be sustained.
Anthropic has emerged as one of the biggest rivals, with soaring demand for its Claude AI from software developers to handle their computer programming, and some firms deploying its top-shelf model Mythos to unearth vulnerabilities in their code.
While the blockbuster offerings could inject fresh momentum into the US IPO market, some bankers warn they might also soak up capital that could otherwise flow to smaller deals. “What OpenAI does not want is for the public market capital to exhaust itself,” said Gil Luria, managing director of D.A. Davidson. — Reuters
