OpenAI, the maker of the hit chatbot ChatGPT, made official its prep for a blockbuster public listing – where it will test investor appetite for its cash-burning business.
The Sam Altman-led company – which ignited the artificial-intelligence frenzy in 2022 – said Monday that it confidentially filed initial public offering paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission, setting OpenAI up to go public as soon as the fall.
An OpenAI IPO – along with planned listings by its competitors Anthropic and SpaceX, which owns xAI – will be a consequential test for the red-hot companies.
OpenAI’s brief statement didn’t set a precise timeline: “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.”
Shares of OpenAI, SpaceX and Anthropic are all expected to hit public markets this year in what will be a critical test for investor appetite for the cash-burning AI companies.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which earlier this year merged with his AI outfit xAI, could stage a listing later this week which could turn Musk into the world’s first trillionaire.
Anthropic, meanwhile, said last week it confidentially filed paperwork to go public. The company, led by CEO Dario Amodei, filed the required S-1 form just days after it raised $65 billion at a post-money valuation of $965 billion – making it more valuable than OpenAI.
The first of the trio to go public could see greater access to large pools of cash earmarked to back the AI juggernauts.
OpenAI top brass have reportedly worried about Anthropic beating it to the punch in holding a listing.
OpenAI has been scrambling to polish up its finances and pave a clear path to becoming profitable ahead of its planned IPO. This week the Financial Times reported that OpenAI was giving its chatbot a sweeping makeover – aiming to turn ChatGPT into a “superapp” that features coding tools and AI agents that can perform simultaneous tasks for users.
In recent months, OpenAI’s software coding capabilities have increasingly been perceived as lagging behind Anthropic’s Claude.
The overhaul comes after details surfaced in April about how OpenAI fell short of internal revenue and user targets ahead of a potential IPO later this year — raising concerns about whether it will be able to offset massive spending on AI.
