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.”

The company said the new model applies to auto-renewable subscriptions and is designed to give users lower monthly prices while helping developers secure steadier long-term income.

Under the system, customers can spread payments across 12 months instead of paying upfront for an annual plan. In return, developers may offer reduced monthly rates compared with standard month-to-month subscriptions.

Developers usually promote annual subscriptions by showing a cheaper monthly equivalent to persuade users to commit for longer. Apple is now building that option directly into the App Store system.

Users can cancel at any time, but the subscription will remain active until all agreed payments have been completed. It will not renew after the 12-month term if the user cancels before the end of the commitment.

To make terms clearer, customers will be able to check how many payments they have completed and how many remain through their Apple Account settings.

Apple also said it will send reminder emails and, for users who opt in, push notifications before renewal dates.

However, the new subscription option will not launch initially in the United States or Singapore. Apple did not give a reason for excluding the two markets.

Developers can already set up the feature in App Store Connect and test it through Xcode.

The option will be available worldwide, except for those two countries, for users running iOS 26.4, iPadOS 26.4, macOS Tahoe 26.4, tvOS 26.4 and visionOS 26.4 or later, once iOS 26.5 and related software updates are released in May.

The order, one of Beijing’s strongest moves yet against a foreign purchase of a Chinese tech company, came on Monday from China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which said foreign investment in Manus would be prohibited under Chinese law, and the deal must be unwound.

Beijing is now concentrating on AI talent, software and intellectual property, and areas once taken over by chip restrictions now include artificial intelligence, as competition between China and the United States gets stronger

Chinese authorities began examining the acquisition in January, shortly after Meta completed the purchase in December. The review later intensified, and in March, Manus co-founders Xiao Hong and Ji Yichao were reportedly called to Beijing for talks with regulators and then barred from leaving China.

Neither founder publicly responded to requests for comment.

Meta has also not issued a public response.

Manus had drawn attention in China after launching what it described as a general AI agent in 2025. State-backed media had commended the company as a possible successor to DeepSeek, one of China’s most-watched AI firms.

Unlike model developers who build large language systems from scratch, Manus focused on agent software designed to complete multi-step tasks with limited human input. These tasks include coding, research and workflow automation.

Before the takeover, Manus raised $75 million in funding led by Benchmark in May 2025.

The company later shut its China offices and moved operations to Singapore, where its parent company, Butterfly Effect, was restructured. That move was seen as an attempt to attract foreign capital while easing both U.S. and Chinese restrictions.

Chinese regulators now appear determined to challenge that route.

The practice, sometimes called “Singapore washing”, involves Chinese-founded startups shifting legal structures or operations abroad while keeping roots in China. The latest development with Beijing reveals that strategy may no longer guarantee protection from investigations.

Startups moving overseas may not be enough as authorities may now demand proof of where management is headquartered, where research is done, where data is stored and who controls the company’s technology.

The China ruling could also create some problems for Meta, as some Manus staff had already moved into Meta’s Singapore offices, while parts of the startup’s work were reportedly being integrated into Meta projects.

Any reversal may now require separating teams, contracts and technology already tied together.

This is coming weeks before a planned summit in Beijing between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in mid-May.

That meeting was expected to cover trade and technology tensions, but this issue now adds another case.

China has previously criticised foreign-linked deals involving strategic assets, but forcing the breakup of a completed transaction is rare.

China does not want core AI assets leaving its reach, no matter where a company later relocates.

Snap confirmed the cuts on Wednesday and will also close more than 300 open roles. The decision follows pressure from Irenic Capital Management, which recently built a 2.5% stake and called for changes to improve performance.

Irenic had urged the company to trim its workforce, review its investments and consider spinning off or shutting down its augmented reality unit, Specs.

Snap said improvements in artificial intelligence are already helping it reduce repetitive work. That shift, it added, means it can operate with fewer staff while keeping output steady.

Chief executive Evan Spiegel told employees the company expects to save more than $500 million a year by the second half of 2026. Those savings will come mainly from lower costs of operations and reduced stock-based compensation.

The company expects to take charges of between $95 million and $130 million linked to the layoffs. Most of that will fall in the second quarter.

Despite the cuts, Snap pointed to steady business performance. It expects first-quarter revenue of about $1.53 billion, up around 12% from a year earlier. Adjusted core profit is projected at $233 million, ahead of market expectations.

The company’s shares rose more than 10% in premarket trading, although the stock is still down about 31% this year.

Attention is also on Specs, Snap’s augmented reality glasses unit. The business has absorbed more than $3.5 billion in investment and continues to burn roughly $500 million a year. Snap plans to launch the product for consumers later this year, even as competition tightens.

Competitors, including Meta Platforms, already have a lead in the smart glasses market, leaving an interesting watch on the unit’s sustainability.

Snap now joins the list of tech companies cutting jobs in 2026, looking for ways to run leaner operations and improve returns.

The research firm predicts Meta will generate $243.46 billion in net advertising revenue in 2026. That would put it just ahead of Google, which is projected to bring in $239.54 billion over the same period.

Meta’s ad business is expected to expand by 24.1% this year, up from 22.1% in 2025. Google’s growth, by contrast, is forecast to hold steady at 11.9%.

Focusing on automated advertising tools is enhancing Meta’s Advantage+ suite, which has gained traction among advertisers who want quicker campaign setup and better returns on spending. 

That demand is helping the company pull in more marketing budgets at a time when brands are watching costs closely.

“In ⁠surpassing Google, Meta has essentially had many of its core ⁠strategies validated,” said Max Willens, principal analyst at Emarketer.

Added to this, Meta has also expanded its ad footprint in recent years. It introduced advertising on WhatsApp and Threads, opening new inventory for marketers. At the same time, Instagram Reels is competing in the short-video space, where TikTok and YouTube Shorts are already strong.

Meanwhile, Google still earns from a mix of businesses, including subscriptions such as YouTube Premium. That spread provides stability, but it may also slow how quickly its ad revenue grows compared with Meta’s more focused push.

The market is concentrated. Emarketer expects Google, Meta and Amazon to account for 62.3% of global digital ad spending in 2026.

Smaller platforms are likely to feel more pressure if ad budgets tighten. Analysts say companies such as Snap and Pinterest are more exposed when advertisers shift spending towards larger, established platforms.

Emarketer noted that recent court rulings involving Meta and YouTube were not included in its projections and are not expected to significantly change the outlook.

Details shared with investors, and reported by Axios, outline a strong growth path. The company expects ad revenue to reach $11 billion in 2027, then $25 billion in 2028, and $53 billion in 2029.

These figures depend on one key assumption where OpenAI believes its products could reach 2.75 billion weekly users by the end of the decade.

Early this year, OpenAI began testing ads in ChatGPT for some users in the United States. The test focused on people using the free tier and the lower-priced Go plan.

Within six weeks, the pilot crossed $100 million in annualised revenue. By March, more than 600 advertisers had signed up.

That early traction gives a clearer picture of where the company is heading. Ad is no longer an experiment but an indispensable part of how OpenAI plans to make more revenue, alongside subscriptions and enterprise deals.

The market is large but crowded. Alphabet reported $294.69 billion in advertising revenue in 2025, while Meta posted $196.18 billion.

OpenAI is trying to take a share of that ad market by using a different advantage, ultimately boosting revenue. In chat-based systems, users usually state exactly what they want, which could make adverts more precise.

Still, there are issues. Some analysts have warned that showing ads inside ChatGPT could affect how people trust the service but OpenAI says it has not seen that so far.

The company reports low dismissal rates and no drop in its trust metrics since the pilot began.

Not everyone is taking the same route. Competitor Anthropic has said its Claude chatbot will remain ad-free, drawing a line between the two approaches.

Meanwhile, advertising is expected to carry a large share of OpenAI’s revenue as it tries to keep up with the high cost of building and running its AI systems.

The company is also strengthening itself as a business that can scale in the same way as the largest internet platforms, with ads being a big part of that plan.

The appointment takes effect immediately. Maxson joins from Schneider Electric, where she served as group CFO.

The company generates more than $45 billion in annual revenue and has seen strong demand linked to data centre growth.

At Oracle, she steps into the role at a time when spending is increasing. The company has been investing heavily in data centres, multicloud systems and AI-ready infrastructure. Demand for those services continues to outpace supply.

Maxson said she would focus on disciplined investment. “I aim to ensure continued disciplined investment for creating lasting value for both customers and shareholders.”

Her background in energy could prove useful. Data centres require large amounts of power, and efficiency has become a growing concern as companies scale AI systems. Oracle has been increasing capacity while managing the cost and complexity that comes with it.

Oracle is growing fast, but that growth is expensive. The company has taken on more debt to support its build-out, and investors are watching closely.

In its latest quarter, Oracle reported its best results in 15 years, with revenue growth above 20%. Even so, its stock has struggled this year. Shares were trading around $146 on April 6, still about 25% below their 52-week high despite a slight rise in early trading.

Investors have pointed to the high debt levels and the cost of scaling AI infrastructure. Competition is also intense, with companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google continuing to invest heavily in their own cloud platforms.

Maxson, 48, will receive a base salary of $950,000 and is eligible for a performance-based bonus with a target of $2.5 million, according to a regulatory filing.

Her appointment also brings a change in leadership structure. Doug Kehring, who has handled the finance role for the past six months, will step down and return to leading go-to-market operations.

Hilary Maxson will report directly to Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk, revealing a stronger link between finance and the company’s cloud growth plans.

Within that surge, the drive between Google and Microsoft has become one to pull focus on, not just for technology leadership, but for how artificial intelligence (AI) turns into profitable business, especially with committed spending.

Two Companies, Two Directions

Even before you look deeper, you’d notice both companies are building similar systems, but you’d see the difference in how those systems are used.

Google is pushing its models into products people already use every day, including Search, Android, and YouTube. Its Gemini platform has crossed 750 million monthly users, giving it reach that few competitors can match.

Microsoft is taking a different route which is more structured. Its Copilot tools are built into Word, Excel, Teams and other workplace software. The idea is to make businesses pay for productivity.

That difference is where we place our attention. Google has scale, while Microsoft has pricing.

The Competition is Infrastructure

It is easy to focus on apps and chat interfaces, but that is not where the case is being decided.

It is in infrastructure you’d find the competition; data centres, chips, and computing power.

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, plans to spend $175 billion to $185 billion in 2026 alone, largely on servers, networking and AI capacity.

Microsoft is also increasing spending, with its capital expenditure expected to move towards $100 billion or more, driven by demand for cloud and AI services.

This level of investment changes the nature of the industry. AI is not just software, it is capital-intensive, closer to energy or telecoms than traditional tech.

I would put it this way, whoever controls compute, controls the market.

Products: Gemini vs Copilot

The difference in strategy becomes better to grasp at the product level.

Google’s Gemini is built for wide use, sitting inside search results, mobile devices and developer tools. Updates have been frequent, with new versions released through 2025 and early 2026 to improve reasoning and performance.

Microsoft’s Copilot is more targeted, focusing on workplace tasks, writing documents, analysing spreadsheets, and summarising meetings.

But adoption?

Microsoft has around 15 million paid Copilot users, a small share of its Microsoft 365 base of hundreds of millions.

That gap stresses the fact that interest in AI tools is high. Paying for them is still limited.

Cloud: Where the Money Actually Comes From

The revenue engine is behind the scenes. Google Cloud has been expanding, with revenue growth close to 48% year-on-year, driven largely by demand for AI workloads.

Microsoft Azure is however a larger business, with strong growth tied directly to AI usage and enterprise demand.

This is where the competition becomes tougher because companies are not just using AI tools, they are renting computing power to run them.

Cloud turns AI into something billable.

Spending is Increasing Faster Than Returns

There is, nonetheless, an imbalance.

Microsoft is targeting $25 billion in AI-related revenue by 2026, supported by Copilot and Azure services.

Google is already seeing profits in advertising and cloud from its AI rollout.

But both are spending far ahead of what they are earning.

Even within Microsoft’s ecosystem, only a small percentage of users are paying for AI features, despite heavy investment and promotion.

So when does this start paying off?

It is Important to note that Investors are not ignoring the risk.

Google’s decision to increase spending has already triggered mixed reactions in the market, even as its core business stands strong.

Microsoft is facing a different issue, which is adoption. Copilot is growing, but not at a pace that fully justifies the scale of investment yet.

So the market is in a strange position, believing in the long-term potential, but watching the short-term numbers carefully.

Here the Bigger Question Comes

This has gone beyond a competition between two companies. Will the current level of investment produce the kind of productivity being promised?

The comparison with past technology cycles is unavoidable. Large amounts of capital are being deployed ahead of proven returns. That does not automatically mean a bubble, but it does introduce risk.

Right now, demand for computing power is strong, but what we don’t know is whether that demand will remain strong enough to justify the infrastructure being built.

Who is Ahead?

The answer depends on how you measure it.

Google is ahead when it comes to reach. Its products touch billions of users, and its AI systems are already embedded into everyday digital activity.

Microsoft comes top in structure. It has a clearer path to monetisation through enterprise software and cloud services.

Google and Microsoft are strong when it comes to AI, both are spending heavily, but neither has fully solved the same problem, which is turning scale into sustained profit.

So, let’s not look at who builds the better model between Google and Microsoft or who comes top in AI spending, but who can turn artificial intelligence into a reliable business before the cost of building it becomes harder to justify.

That is where this growth will be decided.

The new plan targets senior leaders, including Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, as the company expands its drive into artificial intelligence and tries to keep key talent.

Regulatory filings show that several top executives will now be eligible for stock options. They include the finance chief, technology chief, product chief, operating chief, president and legal chief. Most of them will also receive higher restricted stock awards, which vest over time.

The stock options come with conditions, as the lowest tranche only pays out if Meta’s share price reaches $1,116.08. That is about 88% above its latest close of $592.92. The highest tier requires the stock to climb to $3,727.12, more than six times its current level.

If the targets are not met by February 2028, the unvested options will be released gradually until August 2030. They expire in March 2031 if unused.

A company spokesperson said the package is a “big bet” and that it “will not be realised unless Meta achieves massive future success, benefiting all of our shareholders.”

This stresses how intense the competition for AI talent has become. Companies such as OpenAI, Google and Anthropic are offering large pay deals to attract researchers. Meta has also been active, hiring aggressively and acquiring smaller firms to strengthen its AI teams.

In March, the company brought in Dreamer AI, a startup working on advanced AI systems, as part of its expansion into what it calls “superintelligence” research.

Spending has surged alongside hiring, with Meta reporting $72 billion in capital expenditure in 2025 and expects that figure to rise to as much as $135 billion in 2026. Much of that is tied to AI infrastructure, including data centres and computing power.

Analysts expect Meta’s stock to trade between $838 and $935 in 2026, with some forecasts going higher. Even so, the new option targets sit well above those estimates.

Executives only benefit if the company delivers exceptional growth. So, Meta is tying pay to performance, believing AI will drive that outcome.

More than 200 people are said to be working on the project. The smart speaker will be the first device to launch and sources familiar with the plans say it is likely to cost between $200 and $300. However, it is not expected to ship before February 2027.

The speaker will reportedly include a camera which would allow the device to take in information about users and their surroundings. The report says the feature is designed to support more contextual responses and interactions.

Smart glasses are also in development, but mass production is unlikely before 2028. In addition, the company is said to be exploring a smart lamp and a wearable pin built for AI-powered interactions.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company formally entered the hardware market in 2025 when it acquired io Products, a startup founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive, for $6.5 billion. Ive’s design studio is now working with OpenAI on the new devices.

This places OpenAI in competition with technology companies that are already developing or selling smart wearables.

Meta Platforms has recorded strong sales of its Ray-Ban smart glasses, which allow users to take photos, record video and stream content through built-in cameras. The glasses also support AI-driven features.

Apple is reportedly working on its own smart glasses while Google is still experimenting with augmented reality hardware after its earlier Google Glass project.

In building its own devices, OpenAI would better manage how users interact with its software. Instead of relying only on apps and partnerships, it could enhance the full experience, from hardware design to AI features.

However, devices built with cameras and sensors may attract regulatory review. Privacy issues are likely to surface, particularly in regions with strict data protection rules such as the European Union.

For now, the first expected product is the OpenAI smart speaker. If timelines are met, customers will not see it on shelves for at least another year.