OpenAI has filed a confidential S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, putting the $852 billion AI company on a runway toward one of the largest public market debuts in history.
The news comes from OpenAI itself, despite confidentially filing for the IPO.
“We recently submitted a confidential S-1,” OpenAI said in a statement. “We expect it to leak so we’re just announcing it.” The company added it has not settled on timing, although industry reporting suggests it could occur in the fourth quarter of this year.
“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.”
A confidential filing lets a company hand its financials to regulators before they become available to the public or prospective investors.
The S-1 arrives exactly one week after rival Anthropic made its own confidential submission. Anthropic closed its most recent funding round at a $965 billion valuation, topping OpenAI’s $852 billion figure set in late March. SpaceX, which merged with xAI earlier this year, kicked off its own roadshow the prior week and is set to begin trading on public markets imminently. If SpaceX’s offering lands well, OpenAI and Anthropic could rank among the three largest IPOs on record. SpaceX’s own filing names OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google as key competitors in AI.
OpenAI has raised more than $180 billion in total funding and continues to spend heavily to secure compute and build out AI training and inference infrastructure. To ease near-term liquidity pressure ahead of a listing, the company plans a tender offer that would let employees sell shares at the $852 billion post-money valuation.
Altman framed the IPO push within a broader shift in a Monday blog post.
“Every few generations, a new technology changes everything,” he wrote. “The economy is beginning to reshape around AI. The central question now is how to make advanced AI abundant, affordable, safe, useful, and easy enough for every person and organization to benefit from it.”
“A good AI future cannot be one where a small number of institutions control most of the capability and most of the upside. It should be a future where many people, companies, communities, and countries can build, benefit, and hold power. We believe this transformation should belong to everyone.”
Information for this story was found via the sources and companies mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to the organizations discussed. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
