OpenAI Files Confidential IPO Paperwork With SEC
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- OpenAI made a confidential filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday to pursue an IPO, exactly one week after rival Anthropic announced its own plans to go public.
- OpenAI said timing hasn't been decided and it "may be a while" because some things are "easier as a private company," but it disclosed the filing now because "we expect it to leak" — leaving the door open to "go public sooner if that ends up being best."
- SpaceX is set to debut on the Nasdaq on Friday targeting a $1.75tn (£1.3tn) valuation, part of the same wave of heavyweight tech IPOs alongside OpenAI and Anthropic.
- OpenAI's most recent private valuation hit $852bn, while Anthropic's reached $965bn — both inching toward $1tn as they compete for users, corporate customers, and investors.
- OpenAI's compute costs are estimated at over $100bn a year while its revenue is a fraction of that, whereas Anthropic has told investors it expects to turn a profit in the first half of this year — a profitability gap that going public will expose.
- All three firms share a "vast need for cash" for AI infrastructure including chips and model training, and "no-one wants to be last" in the race to list, according to Aviva Investors' Sunil Krishnan.
Why it matters: Once public, OpenAI must disclose financials that currently sit behind a $852bn private valuation — and the $100bn-a-year compute bill versus a fraction-of-that revenue will be visible to every public-market investor. Anthropic's expected profitability creates a direct contrast investors will judge both companies against, and the performances of these listings will set the valuation template for the broader generative AI sector.
