OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has filed for an initial public offering, joining rival Anthropic in the race to go public as competition in the artificial intelligence sector reaches unprecedented intensity.
The San Francisco-based startup announced that it has submitted a confidential S-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “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 in a post on X, as NBC Los Angeles reported. The AI firm added that the filing “gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best.”
The filing follows Anthropic’s own IPO submission on June 1. Anthropic was valued at $952 billion in its most recent funding round. OpenAI’s valuation soared to $852 billion in March after it raised $122 billion in fresh capital to fuel its AI ambitions, including the extensive data center infrastructure and cloud computing capacity required to run advanced models.
Both IPOs follow SpaceX’s historic public offering, which raised up to $75 billion and gave the rocket company a market value of $1.77 trillion, the largest IPO in history. SpaceX began trading under the symbol SPCX on Nasdaq, as NBC Los Angeles reported.
The trio of massive offerings represents a turning point for public markets after years of muted IPO activity. Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities wrote in a research note that SpaceX’s listing “represents the first major test for public markets after years of muted IPO activity with SpaceX paving the way for AI giants Anthropic and OpenAI to follow soon after.”
OpenAI’s IPO filing comes amid a broader AI investment race that has seen the company partner with SoftBank and Oracle on the Stargate project, a joint venture announced by President Donald Trump on his first full day back in office. The project aims to build massive AI data center infrastructure across the United States.
The company faces significant capital requirements to maintain its competitive position. Developing advanced AI models requires enormous computing resources, and the physical infrastructure to support them represents one of the largest capital expenditure programs in technology history. OpenAI’s $122 billion raise in March was one of the largest private funding rounds ever recorded.
The timing of OpenAI’s public debut remains uncertain, but the filing signals that the company is preparing for the scrutiny and capital access that come with public markets, even as it weighs the tradeoffs of operating as a private entity.
