OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has confidentially filed for an initial public offering in the United States, according to a recent report by Reuters.
As per Reuters, OpenAI disclosed the confidential filing on Monday, though it did not reveal the size or terms of the planned offering. According to the report, OpenAI is targeting a valuation as high as $1 trillion, and its listing could arrive as early as September.
In a statement, OpenAI cautioned that the timeline remains uncertain. “It may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company,” the company said, according to the report.
The move pitches OpenAI into an intensifying race among AI firms to tap public markets. Rival Anthropic, the maker of the Claude family of models, filed its own confidential paperwork on June 1, shortly after closing a $65 billion funding round that valued it at $965 billion. Elon Musk’s SpaceX was the first to file, seeking $75 billion at a $1.75 trillion valuation. Together, the three listings represent the most significant test of investor appetite for high-growth technology stocks in a decade.
OpenAI’s financials have grown at a blistering pace. In March, the firm told investors it was generating $2 billion in monthly revenue, roughly four times the rate of growth achieved by Alphabet and Meta during their early years, Reuters reported. That compares with quarterly revenue of about $1 billion at the end of 2024. The company earlier this year raised $110 billion at an $840 billion valuation from backers including SoftBank, Amazon, and Nvidia, and disclosed that ChatGPT had more than 900 million weekly active users and over 50 million paying subscribers.
Despite the surging top line, OpenAI does not expect to turn a profit until 2030, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The road to the public markets has also been cleared by a significant legal victory. A US jury in May ruled against Elon Musk, who had sued OpenAI, alleging it had abandoned its original nonprofit mission. The unanimous verdict removed a major overhang on the IPO, analysts said.
OpenAI’s structure, which began as a nonprofit in 2015 before adding a for-profit arm, has been under scrutiny. In late 2024, the company announced plans to create a public benefit corporation to attract more capital. Its partnership with early investor Microsoft, which poured $13 billion into the firm from 2019, was recently renegotiated, allowing OpenAI to strike deals with Amazon and Google as well.
OpenAI’s confidential filing had been widely expected, with prediction markets initially betting it would beat Anthropic to the punch. Instead, Anthropic edged ahead after its fundraising. The coming months will test whether public investors are ready to value the AI boom at these unprecedented levels.
