OpenAI Confidentially Files for IPO on the Heels of SpaceX and Anthropic
OpenAI has filed confidential paperwork for an initial public offering, the company announced on Monday, kicking off what could be a monthslong process toward debuting
OpenAI has filed confidential paperwork for an initial public offering, the company announced on Monday, kicking off what could be a monthslong process toward debuting on a US stock exchange. The move makes it the third company to file for what could be a trillion-dollar IPO this year. Tech companies pursuing the most powerful AI models, including publicly traded giants Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft, are hungry for tens of billions dollars each to build out more data centers and recruit scientists to grow their services. An IPO would be yet another fundraising opportunity for OpenAI after the company privately raised $122 billion in March. Going public, which brings many workers closer to a life-altering payday and increases transparency about a business’ financial health, could also boost employee morale and customer confidence as OpenAI tries to regain its position as the clear front-runner in frontier AI. OpenAI did not specify timing for the IPO nor how much it plans to raise. “We recently submitted a confidential S-1,” the company said in an unsigned, one-paragraph blog post. “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.” OpenAI declined to comment further. But by having paperwork ready, the company could draft off a potentially successful debut by Anthropic. If the rival runs into any challenges, OpenAI could hold off and recalibrate. Got a Tip? Are you a current or former OpenAI or Anthropic employee who wants to talk about what's happening? We'd like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact the reporters securely on Signal at Peard33.24 and Mzeff.88. A Three-Way Race Anthropic, which was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, filed its confidential IPO paperwork on June 1. Just days before the filing, Anthropic’s latest fundraising brought its valuation to $965 billion, topping OpenAI’s $852 billion mark—both record-breaking figures in the world of tech venture capital. Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which makes rockets, sells satellite internet, and also develops some of the world’s most capable AI models, publicly filed its IPO papers last month. The IPOs could value each of these companies at over $1 trillion despite all of them being unprofitable and having roughly 80 percent to 90 percent lower sales than nearly every existing trillion-dollar public company.
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