OpenAI, the developer behind ChatGPT, has submitted confidential preliminary paperwork to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), marking a significant step toward a stock market debut. The San Francisco-based company announced the filing on Monday, joining a wave of artificial intelligence firms racing to go public.
"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 move follows rival Anthropic's announcement on 1 June that it is also pursuing an IPO. Both companies join Elon Musk's SpaceX, which has begun an IPO roadshow while positioning itself as an AI-focused space company. This trio of potential listings is part of what analysts describe as an unprecedented wave of public offerings, with combined valuations potentially exceeding $4 trillion.
Why OpenAI Needs Public Markets
OpenAI has not publicly disclosed its revenues or provided a timeline for profitability. Like Anthropic and SpaceX, the company has been spending heavily on infrastructure and development while competing in an increasingly crowded AI market. Its main rivals include Anthropic's Claude chatbot and Google's Gemini assistant.
Speaking to The Associated Press in April, OpenAI chief financial officer Sarah Friar said the company was already operating with the discipline expected of a listed company, including measuring revenue according to standards required for SEC reporting. "I want us to be ready," Friar said. "I think it's good to be able to tap the public markets. They're much bigger than the private markets."
She added that OpenAI's current valuation would place it among the 15 largest companies in the S&P 500 index. "There is a credentialising moment of being a public company," Friar said. "At that point, people are checking your balance sheet, the SEC is governing you and so on."
The filing comes at what eMarketer analyst Nate Elliott described as a "precarious moment" for the company, as OpenAI faces growing competition from Google and Anthropic. "But OpenAI doesn't have a lot of other places to look for the enormous capital required to support its costs," Elliott said.
From Non-Profit to Public Benefit Corporation
Founded in 2015 as a non-profit organisation focused on developing AI for the public good, OpenAI has since evolved into a company valued at $852 billion (€730bn). A major step toward a public listing came last year when OpenAI restructured its business and converted into a public benefit corporation while remaining under the control of its non-profit parent organisation.
The company also removed a significant legal hurdle last month after defeating Musk in a federal jury trial. Musk, a co-founder and early donor, had sought to remove Altman from leadership and reverse OpenAI's transition to a for-profit model. A judge dismissed the case after jurors found Musk had filed the lawsuit too late.
In a separate statement released on Monday, Altman outlined OpenAI's long-term ambitions, including developing an automated AI researcher, accelerating economic growth and providing "everyone on Earth a personal AGI" — artificial general intelligence capable of outperforming humans across many tasks. Altman said OpenAI had progressed from pure research to commercial products and was now entering a third phase focused on the broad distribution of AI-driven benefits. "We're working to ensure the gains are widely shared," he said. "Everyone should have an opportunity for a meaningful share in the prosperity AI creates."
European Implications
For European investors, the wave of AI IPOs presents both opportunities and risks. As SpaceX IPO: How European Retail Investors Can Buy Shares and Assess Risks highlights, retail investors across the continent are eyeing these listings. Meanwhile, European regulators are closely watching the developments, as the US Officials Explore Public Stake in AI as Europe Weighs Regulatory Path story underscores the transatlantic dimension of AI governance.
The combined scale of these IPOs is unprecedented. SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic IPOs Test Market Capacity in Unprecedented $4 Trillion Wave details how the market may absorb such a surge. For now, OpenAI's filing signals that the race to go public is accelerating, with profound implications for the global AI landscape and European stakeholders alike.
