OpenAI Pursues Confidential IPO, Entering the $3.6T AI Public Market Competition
OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has confidentially filed an S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, indicating its plans for an initial public offering (IPO). The announcement came on Monday, June 8, 2026, just a week after its competitor, Anthropic, made a similar confidential filing. This also comes shortly before SpaceX is anticipated to start public trading.
These three companies collectively make up an AI IPO pipeline now estimated to be worth around $3.6 trillion, according to Bloomberg. This marks a significant concentration of mega-offerings, a phenomenon not seen since the dot-com era. Following its $122 billion funding round in March 2026, the largest in Silicon Valley’s history, OpenAI was most recently valued at $852 billion.
OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, mentioned in a post on X that the company has “not decided on timing yet,” acknowledging the possibility of remaining private for a longer period due to certain strategic advantages. CFO Sarah Friar has indicated that the company may not achieve cash-flow positivity for at least another four years, with projected losses of $14 billion in 2026 alone. Despite this, ChatGPT currently serves over 900 million weekly active users, highlighting its substantial consumer reach.
The confidential IPO filing enables OpenAI to initiate its regulatory review process without immediately disclosing detailed financials to the public.
Source: TechCrunch — OpenAI Files Confidentially for IPO, Following Anthropic