OpenAI announced that it has filed for an initial public offering of stock, joining its chief rival Anthropic in the race to go public. The filing intensifies the competition among AI companies seeking to capitalize on investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence, with significant implications for the Los Angeles technology ecosystem.
The ChatGPT maker said in a post on X that it had submitted a confidential S-1 filing. “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 stated. “It’s a complicated set of tradeoffs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best.”
In March, OpenAI’s valuation soared to $852 billion after the company raised $122 billion to fuel its ambitions in AI development and the physical data center infrastructure required to run advanced models. The company’s primary rival, Anthropic, filed for its own public offering on June 1, with a valuation of $952 billion in its most recent funding round.
The IPO filings come on the heels of SpaceX’s trillion-dollar public offering, which made Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. The SpaceX IPO was the largest in history, raising up to $75 billion. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told CNBC that the SpaceX IPO was “immaterial” to Goldman’s $20 billion in quarterly revenue, but described the AI infrastructure build-out cycle as still in its “early innings.”
For Los Angeles, the AI investment race is creating jobs, driving real estate demand, and attracting talent. AI companies have been expanding their presence across the region, with OpenAI, Anthropic, and other firms competing for engineers, researchers, and data scientists. The influx of capital into AI startups is also benefiting the broader technology ecosystem, including cloud computing, semiconductor, and data center companies.
The race to go public reflects the massive capital requirements of building AI systems. Both OpenAI and Anthropic are investing heavily in computing infrastructure, data centers, and talent. On his first full day back in office, President Donald Trump invited leaders of SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle to announce the creation of Stargate, a new AI infrastructure company.
Regardless of when OpenAI and Anthropic begin trading, their IPOs will be among the largest in history, reflecting the transformative expectations placed on artificial intelligence and its role in the economy. The filings signal that the AI industry is maturing from a private investment phase into the public markets, with implications for investors, employees, and the broader technology sector.
