AI companies are racing to raise tens of billions of dollars to buy chips and data centres and build more advanced AI
ChatGPT creator OpenAI became the third major artificial intelligence developer to confidentially file for a public listing Monday, joining rivals in an IPO pipeline now worth some US$3.6 trillion.
SpaceX, which is officially known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is preparing for an IPO that would value the company at about US$1.8 trillion. Anthropic raised funds at a US$965 billion valuation last month. And OpenAI was worth US$852 billion based on its most recent funding round in March.
The Sam Altman-led firm submitted paperwork for an initial public offering with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said Monday. OpenAI is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley on a potential listing as soon as the fall, people familiar with the matter have said.
Deliberations are ongoing and details of the IPO plan could change. “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,” OpenAI said. “But it’s a complicated set of tradeoffs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best.”
OpenAI is also planning to launch a tender sale of its shares to provide liquidity to employees in the coming weeks, before the company goes public, according to a person familiar with the matter. A spokesperson declined to comment.
Founded more than a decade ago, OpenAI kicked off the generative AI boom with the release of ChatGPT in late 2022. Though the company and its flagship chatbot remain synonymous with AI for many people, OpenAI also faces a number of challenges, including heightened competition from Anthropic PBC and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.
OpenAI reportedly missed certain internal revenue and user growth targets. Several key executives have departed or stepped back from their roles. And the company has been working to streamline its sprawling product lineup.
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Anthropic, the startup behind the chatbot Claude, said last week that it had filed confidentially for an IPO of its own. The company also leaped to a US$965 billion valuation in its latest private funding round — above OpenAI’s for the first time — as its revenue surged.
A public debut in 2026 would also pit Altman squarely against Elon Musk on a different plane than the failed lawsuit against OpenAI and its chief executive. SpaceX, Musk’s rocket, satellite and AI firm, is targeting an IPO at a valuation of roughly US$1.8 trillion on Thursday, which would immediately make it one of the world’s most valuable public companies.
OpenAI has already dwarfed even SpaceX’s IPO in a single funding round. The company completed a deal to raise US$122 billion from investors at an US$852 billion valuation.
AI companies are racing to raise tens of billions of dollars to buy chips and data centres and build more advanced AI systems. In February, OpenAI told investors it was planning to spend about US$600 billion on AI infrastructure by 2030.
https://financialpost.com/investing/openai-joins-ai-ipo-pipeline?shem=rimspwouoe,
