OpenAI files confidential IPO as artificial intelligence industry faces trillion-dollar test

OpenAI Confirms Confidential IPO Filing, With Big Stakes for the AI Boom

OpenAI, perhaps the best-known company in the booming artificial intelligence market, filed confidentially on Monday for an initial public offering. Although there's no date yet for the company's public offering, this is a much-anticipated move, and according to The New York Times, an OpenAI IPO "could be one of the largest public offerings to hit Wall Street." "We recently submitted a confidential S-1. We expect it to leak so we're just announcing it," OpenAI said in a statement posted on X on Monday afternoon. "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 trade-offs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best." Filing confidentially means that, while OpenAI has likely begun the IPO process and submitted documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the details remain private. It's different from a public filing, where the company's prospectus and financial information are available for investors to review. A representative for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Elon Musk and current OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. (Musk left the company's board in 2018, and later sued Altman, in a trial that ended in Altman's favor just last month.) In 2022, the company released ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot based on large language model technology. Few apps have expanded as rapidly as ChatGPT, which amassed hundreds of millions of users in record time and has become, to many people, shorthand for AI chatbots. The IPO will be closely watched, as investors weigh whether Altman's own warnings about an AI bubble are correct. If OpenAI goes public, it would join a slate of high-profile IPOs expected this year, including Musk's SpaceX as well as Anthropic, OpenAI's major rival in artificial intelligence. The rush toward IPOs shows in part how eager investors are to turn massive AI bets into profits, while companies push to raise the huge sums they need to keep going. AI is an expensive business, with costs driven by the computing power needed to train large language models and the data centers, chips and power infrastructure required to run them. Public debut risks An OpenAI IPO would be a pivotal and high-stakes milestone. So far, the AI industry has largely been driven by speculation, with valuations tied more to future promise than current earnings. An online tracker of frontier AI companies' revenues and losses shows that AI development has cost more than twice what it has generated so far, suggesting billions of dollars in debt. OpenAI's exact debt is hard to pin down precisely because it's a private company. Some reports say its partners and infrastructure backers have taken on roughly $96 billion in debt to support the AI buildout, and some estimates say OpenAI has made about $1.4 trillion in long-term compute and energy commitments. Though OpenAI's widespread brand recognition and products could drive strong investor demand and support a high stock price, going public also exposes the company to scrutiny over its high operating costs and lack of profitability. Greater financial transparency will also subject OpenAI to increased regulatory oversight, potentially exposing legal, privacy or copyright-related challenges. Some critics point to a mismatch between optimistic projections for AI growth and current economic reality. An OpenAI IPO could require investors to price in substantial future expansion despite these uncertainties. Overall, the IPO race could serve as a broader stress test to determine if the AI industry is actually based on a durable business model.

'We Expect It to Leak, So We're Just Announcing It': OpenAI Files Confidentially for IPO

OpenAI is officially going public. The AI giant announced on Monday that it filed for an IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "We expect it to leak so we're just announcing it," OpenAI said in a statement. "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 is so far confidential, which means that the masses won't be able to view the highly coveted details of OpenAI's financials and its murky road to profitability until the SEC makes it public. Companies tend to prefer confidential filings because it helps them seek regulatory approval before presenting financial information to public scrutiny, a wise move considering that OpenAI already has an abundance of critical eyes on itself. OpenAI is currently valued at $852 billion, and reports claim executives are targeting a stock market valuation of up to $1 trillion OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit AI lab. Ten years later, in late 2025, the former non-profit finalized its recapitalization process to become a for-profit public benefit corporation. OpenAI is credited with kickstarting the AI hype cycle by releasing ChatGPT in 2022. Although the company's chatbot is so popular that "ChatGPT" has become practically synonymous with the word "AI chatbot," that leading position has been contested in recent months as competitors Anthropic and Google made strides and dazzled users with high-profile releases. The comparisons were bad enough that OpenAI declared "code red" back in December, even before Anthropic made headlines with Claude Cowork in February and Mythos in April. The road to this IPO filing has been riddled with obstacles. Earlier this week, a jury ruled in favor of OpenAI in a lawsuit filed by co-founder Elon Musk in which the billionaire asked for the court to unwind OpenAI's conversion into a for-profit and to oust CEO Sam Altman from the company. On top of that, there is the issue of profitability, or lack thereof. For months now, the company has been engaged in a major cost-cutting and revenue maximization effort that has included the introduction of ads in ChatGPT and the shuttering of video generator Sora. But despite those measures, the AI giant might still have a tough road to profitability. Last month, the Wall Street Journal said that ChatGPT's growth had slowed toward the end of 2025 and that the chatbot had missed internal revenue and active user targets, citing people familiar with the matter. The report also claimed that CFO Sarah Friar was worried about revenue growth and unsure if OpenAI could pay for its many computing contracts. Another recent report, this time by The Information, claimed that Friar and Altman were at odds over OpenAI's IPO timeline, with the CFO allegedly believing that the company was not well-positioned for an IPO this year. OpenAI is the third of the three big AI-related IPOs the market is bracing itself for this year. The first was SpaceX, led by OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk, whose legal beef with Altman and the company was just resolved last month in OpenAI's favor. SpaceX is expected to officially start trading on the Nasdaq on Friday. The second was OpenAI's number one rival, Anthropic, which confidentially filed for an IPO last week. If they do well, the offerings could have a positive impact on the broader U.S. market. But if they crash and burn, then that's going to reverberate throughout the entire economic system, in its own way. Investors are already noticeably wary of Silicon Valley's justifications for the staggering amount of money being poured into AI infrastructure. Some experts have been painting disaster scenarios of a very real possibility in which AI demand does not pan out as expected in the short term, and the investments, which some say are propping up the entire U.S. economy, cause a feared bubble burst. Any information OpenAI eventually shares in its IPO process about its financial metrics will be an incredibly rare and valuable glimpse into whether the AI industry has the results to back up the hype.

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI files to go public

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in Tokyo last year. (Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP/Getty Images) SAN FRANCISCO -- Artificial intelligence start-up OpenAI has filed to list on the stock market, following on the heels of its AI rival Anthropic and setting up a test of public markets' continued appetite for the AI boom. The ChatGPT-maker filed documents to start the process of going public with the Securities and Exchange Commission "recently," OpenAI said in a short blog post Monday. It said the company had not decided on the timing of its initial public offering. "It may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company," the company wrote. "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 is expected to seek a valuation close to $1 trillion and to become the third of a trio of massive IPOs this year alongside those of Anthropic and Elon Musk's rocket maker SpaceX, which also incorporates his own AI venture xAI. OpenAI's valuation at its last private funding round in March was around $852 billion. (The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.) A successful public offering would immediately make OpenAI one of the 15 most valuable companies in the world and give the company access to billions of dollars needed to keep building and running the AI models that power its products. OpenAI kicked off the AI race in late 2022 when it launched ChatGPT, which quickly won a huge following and inspired competing AI products. Big Tech companies and venture capital firms have spent hundreds of billions of dollars over the past four years to build AI tools of their own. OpenAI has raised huge amounts of private funding but, like Anthropic and SpaceX, remains under pressure to secure more investment. The technology that powers ChatGPT and rival AI systems is hugely expensive to build and run, and they generally don't yet pay for themselves. Going public allows the companies to raise money from a much wider pool of investors, including individuals, rather than relying on large venture capital firms or sovereign wealth funds. This is a developing story that will be updated.

OpenAI files confidential IPO as trillion-dollar AI race escalates

OpenAI has confidentially filed for an initial public offering in the U.S., joining a growing wave of artificial intelligence companies preparing for public market debuts as investor appetite for AI accelerates. The ChatGPT maker made the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, though it has not disclosed the size or timing of the offering. The move places OpenAI alongside rivals such as Anthropic and SpaceX-linked AI ventures that are also moving toward listing. According to reports, OpenAI is targeting a valuation of up to $1 trillion in what could become one of the most closely watched IPOs in recent years. The listing could take place as early as September, depending on market conditions. The company has not confirmed timing. 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 IPO push comes amid a rapid escalation in valuations across the artificial intelligence sector. OpenAI was valued at about $852 billion in its latest funding round, while competitor Anthropic has reportedly reached a valuation close to $965 billion following its own confidential IPO filing. The developments suggest that multiple trillion-dollar AI firms could hit public markets within a short time window, marking a rare concentration of high-growth listings in a single sector. OpenAI has also scaled its commercial footprint sharply. The company says ChatGPT now has more than 900 million weekly active users and over 50 million paid subscribers. It also reported monthly revenue of about $2 billion earlier this year. The company's IPO filing follows a period of internal restructuring and strategic realignment. OpenAI has been working to transition its governance model into a public benefit corporation structure, a change aimed at easing capital access and enabling broader partnerships. The company has also deepened ties with major technology players including Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, even as competition intensifies across the AI industry. At the same time, OpenAI faces rising competition from Anthropic, whose Claude AI models have gained traction among developers and enterprise users. The rivalry has intensified as both firms expand into coding tools, enterprise software, and infrastructure-heavy AI systems. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described the current phase of the company's evolution as the beginning of a broader economic shift driven by artificial intelligence. "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," he said in a blog post. The IPO filing also comes after legal tensions involving Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015. A U.S. jury recently ruled against Musk in a lawsuit challenging OpenAI's shift away from its original nonprofit structure, removing a legal uncertainty that had weighed on the company's public market prospects.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI confidentially files for IPO, a week after Anthropic | Fortune

OpenAI filed confidentially for an IPO, as the ChatGPT maker looks to join artificial intelligence rivals tapping public markets to fund ambitious growth plans. The Sam Altman-led firm submitted paperwork for an initial public offering with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said. OpenAI is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley on a potential listing as soon as in the fall, people familiar with the matter have said. Deliberations are ongoing and details of the IPO plan could change. "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," the company said. "But it's a complicated set of tradeoffs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best." Founded more than a decade ago, OpenAI kicked off the generative AI boom with the release of ChatGPT in late 2022. Though the company and its flagship chatbot remain synonymous with AI for many people, OpenAI also faces a number of challenges, including heightened competition from Anthropic PBC and Alphabet Inc.'s Google. OpenAI reportedly missed certain internal revenue and user growth targets. Several key executives have departed or stepped back from their roles. And the company has been working to streamline its sprawling product lineup. A public debut in 2026 would also pit Altman squarely against Elon Musk on a different plane than the failed lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO. SpaceX, Musk's rocket, satellite and AI firm, is targeting an IPO raising more than $75 billion at a more than $2 trillion valuation as soon as June, Bloomberg News has reported. OpenAI has already dwarfed even SpaceX's IPO in a single funding round. The company completed a deal to raise $122 billion from investors at an $852 billion valuation. AI companies are racing to raise tens of billions of dollars to buy chips and data centers and build more advanced AI systems. In February, OpenAI told investors it was planning to spend about $600 billion on AI infrastructure by 2030.

OpenAI says it filed confidential IPO as it positions itself for AI arms race

Mary Cunningham is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch. She previously worked at "60 Minutes," CBSNews.com and CBS News 24/7 as part of the CBS News Associate Program. OpenAI has filed a confidential initial public offering, the ChatGPT maker said Monday, bringing it one step closer to its official market debut. "We recently submitted a confidential S-1. We expect it to leak so we're just announcing it," OpenAI said in a statement published Monday on its website. "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." Going public will allow OpenAI, which is valued at $852 billion, to inject more cash into its business as the AI arms race heats up. SpaceX, which owns Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI, recently filed for its own IPO, including plans to expand its AI computing power. Shares in the rocket manufacturer are expected to start trading on Friday, in what is set to be the biggest IPO ever. Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, also filed for its own IPO last week. A confidential filing allows OpenAI to gather private feedback from regulators before submitting a public-facing document to the Securities and Exchange Commission. That filing, known as an S-1, will contain details about the AI company's finances and specify its investment plans. OpenAI's filing comes just weeks after a judge threw out a case Musk brought against the company that could have derailed its IPO plans. Musk and Altman founded OpenAI together in 2015.

OpenAI files for IPO, but unsure when it wants to go public

'There are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company', says OpenAI. OpenAI has confidentially filed to go public, but said it could be a "while" before it ceases to be a private company. "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," OpenAI said in a short statement yesterday (8 June). "But it's a complicated set of trade-offs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best." Estimates from last year suggest an initial public offering (IPO) could value the ChatGPT-maker at up to $1trn, in one of the largest listings in history. The company, at the time, was expected to raise at least $60bn in the IPO. While newer reports suggest that the company is also in talks with the US government in the hope that it purchases some of its shares once it goes public. The IPO announcement comes just days after the $852bn AI company's fiercest rival Anthropic also filed to go public. Meanwhile, the tug of war for the biggest IPO raise is currently led by Elon Musk's SpaceX, which is expected to raise a targeted $75bn in its listing. The X and xAI parent company filed for an IPO late last month. Anthropic - currently more valuable than OpenAI at $965bn - has been encroaching on its enterprise customer base, with reports from earlier this year finding that the Claude-parent was capturing a significant portion of first-time enterprise AI customers over OpenAI. As a countermeasure, OpenAI is reportedly working on the biggest ChatGPT overhaul since its launch in 2022 to better compete with Anthropic, which has held a narrower focus on its enterprise business. According to reports, the new desktop 'superapp' will focus strongly on OpenAI's coding tool Codex, a move that reflects shifting interests from AI chatbots to agents that perform tasks for users. The app will also feature the AI chatbot, as well as the AI-powered browser Atlas. OpenAI executives view ChatGPT as an introductory tool to encourage pick-up of higher-value products. The changes are expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks. The company has also made big name hires to develop its "next generation of personal agents", while shutting down less profitable ventures such as its Sora video generation model. A majority of OpenAI's 1bn monthly active ChatGPT customers use the free version of the tool. The company has between 5m and 9m business users, according to different blogs on its website, while the Financial Times reports that it has 2m businesses under its wing and 5m weekly active Codex users. The company expects revenue from its business customers, which represents 40pc of its total revenue, to grow to 50pc by the end of the year. Still, OpenAI is far from being profitable, making around $13bn in revenue last year with a planned spending of about $600bn by 2030. Sources told CNBC earlier this year that the company projects its total revenue for 2030 to be more than $280bn - nearly 20-times its 2025 earnings - with near equal contributions from its consumer and enterprise businesses. Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

OpenAI files for IPO, announces few hours after Apple WWDC concluded: All details

In a separate post, OpenAI outlined what it calls the "third phase" of its journey. Just hours after Apple WWDC 2026 wrapped up with a strong focus on AI, OpenAI dropped two major announcements that hint at its next big moves. In one post, the company revealed that it has confidentially filed for an IPO. The company acknowledged that such filings often become public anyway, which is why it chose to confirm the move early. However, OpenAI made it clear that going public isn't happening immediately. The timing is still undecided, and it could take a while. In a separate post, OpenAI outlined what it calls the "third phase" of its journey. One of the company's main goals is to create an "automated AI researcher." This would be a system that can help scientists and engineers by speeding up research work. OpenAI also believes that by 2028, a significant portion of its research could be done by AI working alongside humans. Also read: Apple iOS 27 developer beta is here: How to download, features and eligible devices The company also wants AI to boost the economy. It believes faster scientific progress and better productivity could benefit everyone if the gains are widely shared. Another key goal is to give every person access to a "personal AGI." "A good AI future cannot be one where a small number of institutions control most of the capability and most of the upside. It should be a future where many people, companies, communities, and countries can build, benefit, and hold power. We believe this transformation should belong to everyone," OpenAI said. Also read: Apple unveils Siri AI at WWDC 2026: Smarter assistant can understand your screen, apps and personal context If everything goes as planned, AI can unlock "greater productivity, creativity, scientific progress, and economic opportunity for the many," as per the company.