OpenAI Moves Toward IPO Filing
CNBC reported Wednesday that OpenAI is preparing to confidentially submit a draft IPO prospectus to regulators as early as Friday, potentially setting the stage for one of the largest public market debuts in history.
The ChatGPT maker is working alongside investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to finalize the submission, according to a source with direct knowledge of the plans. An OpenAI spokesperson said the company’s attention “remains on execution” as part of what it called routine strategic evaluation.
A Valuation That Dwarfs Most Public Companies
OpenAI currently carries a private market valuation exceeding $850 billion. That figure alone places it among the most valuable companies on the planet. The company has pulled in more than $180 billion in investor funding since its founding, yet it continues to spend at a pace that raises sustainability questions. CEO Sam Altman faces mounting pressure from backers to demonstrate that OpenAI’s financial model holds up at scale.
OpenAI previously told CNBC it had been targeting a public offering as early as the fourth quarter of this year. CFO Sarah Friar suggested last month that a company of OpenAI’s scale should already operate with public-company discipline, without specifying any timeline.
Background: A Rivalry Heading to Wall Street
The IPO push arrives as OpenAI’s relationship with Elon Musk reaches a new flashpoint. Musk had co-founded OpenAI alongside Altman before the two had a very public falling out. Musk sued Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman over claims the company abandoned its original nonprofit mission. A jury ruled this week that Musk had filed his lawsuit too late, a decision a federal judge immediately upheld. Musk dismissed the outcome as a procedural matter on his social platform X.
Meanwhile, Musk’s own venture SpaceX is moving simultaneously toward a public disclosure of its own IPO prospectus. Goldman Sachs is set to lead that offering as well, according to separate CNBC reporting.
Anthropic Closes the Gap
OpenAI’s path to market comes with a competitive cloud overhead. Rival Anthropic is currently negotiating a fresh funding round that would value the company at $900 billion, potentially overtaking OpenAI’s private valuation. Anthropic also recently disclosed annualized revenue above $30 billion, signaling serious traction in enterprise and AI coding markets where OpenAI is under pressure.
The confidential filing process gives OpenAI time to refine its disclosures before any public S-1 document becomes visible to investors and competitors alike.
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