OpenAI has made a confidential SEC filing for a future IPO, adding to a rush of potential market listings by major AI and technology firms.
OpenAI has made a confidential filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to pursue a future initial public offering, putting the ChatGPT maker in line for a possible stock market debut as major technology companies seek new pools of capital.
The company said Monday that it had not set a timetable for going public. “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 announcing the filing.
The move comes one week after Anthropic, maker of the Claude chatbot and one of OpenAI’s closest rivals, said it also planned to go public. Neither company has said when a listing could take place, leaving investors watching to see which of the two generative AI firms reaches public markets first.
The filings are part of a broader run of high-profile market debuts. SpaceX is set to list on the Nasdaq on Friday and is targeting a share price that would value Elon Musk’s rocket company at $1.75 trillion, or about £1.3 trillion.
For OpenAI and Anthropic, the push toward public markets reflects the scale of spending required to build and run large AI systems. The companies are competing for users, enterprise customers and investors while funding expensive infrastructure, chips and model training. OpenAI’s most recent private valuation was $852 billion, while Anthropic’s most recent valuation reached $965 billion.
Sunil Krishnan of Aviva Investors told the BBC’s Today programme that the companies have a “vast need for cash” and that “no-one wants to be last” in the move toward public listings.
A public listing could give OpenAI access to billions of dollars in new capital, but it would also require greater disclosure of its finances and product plans. OpenAI said it was disclosing the filing because it expected the news to leak and said the step gives it the option to go public sooner if that proves best.
The next signal for investors will be whether OpenAI or Anthropic moves first from confidential plans to a public offering, a decision likely to shape expectations for the wider generative AI market.
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