OpenAI has confirmed that it has confidentially filed paperwork for a potential initial public offering (IPO) in the United States, becoming one of the latest artificial intelligence companies to take steps towards a stock market listing.
The company announced on Monday that it had submitted a confidential S-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but said it had not yet decided when to go public.
In a statement, OpenAI said: “We recently submitted a confidential S-1. We expect it to leak so we’re just announcing it. We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company. But it’s a complicated set of tradeoffs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best.”
The filing places OpenAI alongside competing AI developers Anthropic and Perplexity, which also submitted confidential IPO documents last week and this week.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is preparing for its own stock market debut, setting up what could become one of the biggest waves of technology listings in recent years.
Although OpenAI did not disclose the size of the proposed offering or a timeline for the listing, this development will boost the company’s growth since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022.
OpenAI has grown into one of the world’s most valuable private firms, with latest valuation standing at about $852 billion, while Anthropic was recently valued at nearly $965 billion following a new funding round.
According to reports, OpenAI has been working with investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on the IPO process.
The company is also expected to organise a tender offer that would allow employees to sell some of their shares, providing liquidity ahead of any public listing.
OpenAI, however, is still facing challenges to justify its valuation as it spends heavily on computing power and infrastructure needed to train and operate more advanced AI models.
The company has reportedly raised more than $180 billion from investors but is still in a phase of significant spending.
Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said in a recent blog post that the company is entering what he described as its “third phase”.
According to Altman, OpenAI first focused on research into artificial general intelligence before becoming a product company through services such as ChatGPT.
“Now we are entering the third phase,” Altman wrote. “The economy is beginning to reshape around AI. The central question now is how to make advanced AI abundant, affordable, safe, useful, and easy enough for every person and organization to benefit from it.”
The planned IPO arrives shortly after a case involving OpenAI and Musk. An advisory jury recently ruled against claims brought by Musk, who had accused OpenAI and Altman of abandoning commitments related to the company’s original non-profit mission. A federal judge subsequently adopted the jury’s verdict.
The number of AI companies preparing for public listings is also drawing attention across the wider industry.
AI search startup Aravind Srinivas said Perplexity still intends to pursue an IPO in 2028 regardless of how the listings of OpenAI and Anthropic perform.
“Agnostic of these two companies, we were planning for something in 2028, so that still remains the case,” Srinivas told CNBC.
He acknowledged that investor reaction to upcoming AI listings could influence market sentiment, particularly the reception to SpaceX’s offering.
“I certainly think there will be ripple effects if they don’t go well, like there is no sugar coating on that. The SpaceX IPO this week will definitely be a leading indicator of how Anthropic or OpenAI will go out,” he said.
Srinivas added that strong public market performances would benefit the AI sector.
“I think it’s important for the AI industry that these IPOs go well, and I actually think they will go well, because they’re doing well.”
