OpenAI Prepares for IPO

OpenAI is preparing to go public. The developer of ChatGPT has confidentially filed documents for an IPO in the United States. No official details have yet been released regarding timing, size or valuation. But the market is already talking about one of the largest tech IPOs of all time.

According to Reuters, OpenAI could seek a valuation of up to 1 trillion US dollars. A stock market debut could reportedly be possible as early as September 2026. That would mean one of the most important companies of the AI era moving from the private financing market to the public stock exchange.

The AI hype meets the capital market

OpenAI represents the boom in generative artificial intelligence like almost no other company. With ChatGPT, the company triggered the current AI wave at the end of 2022. Since then, the technology has moved from an experimental space for early users to a mass phenomenon.

According to Reuters, ChatGPT now reaches around 900 million weekly users and about 50 million paying subscribers. OpenAI is said to generate roughly 2 billion US dollars in monthly revenue. These figures show the company’s enormous reach — and explain why investors consider an exceptionally high valuation possible.

But reach alone is not enough on the stock market. Public investors will want to know how stable revenues are, how expensive growth remains and when technological dominance can turn into sustainable profits.

Profitability remains the major open question

The key issue is profitability. OpenAI is growing rapidly, but it needs enormous resources for data centers, chips, research, safety, staff and partnerships. AI models are not only becoming more powerful, but also more expensive. Each new generation requires more computing power, more infrastructure and more capital.

Reuters reports that OpenAI apparently does not expect to become profitable until 2030. For a company with a possible trillion-dollar valuation, that is a central question. Investors would therefore have to be willing to accept high losses and massive capital needs for years — in the expectation that OpenAI will later occupy a dominant infrastructure role.

That turns the IPO into a test: Does the capital market believe that AI companies can become as dominant and profitable as earlier platform giants? Or has the current hype become too expensive?

Anthropic raises the pressure

OpenAI is not alone. Only a few days earlier, Anthropic had also confidentially filed documents for an IPO. That means the competition between ChatGPT and Claude is increasingly moving to Wall Street.

Strategically, this matters. The company that goes public earlier can raise capital, gain visibility and possibly set the valuation framework for the entire sector. Whoever comes too late risks entering a saturated IPO window with more cautious investors.

Analysts are already warning that several large tech and AI IPOs at the same time could weigh on the market. Alongside OpenAI and Anthropic, other mega-IPOs such as SpaceX are also being discussed. The question is therefore not only how big OpenAI is, but how much capital the market can absorb at once.

The stock market forces more transparency

For OpenAI, an IPO would also have cultural consequences. The company originally emerged as a nonprofit AI research lab and later developed into a commercial heavyweight with a complex structure. That evolution has repeatedly been controversial.

Going public would force OpenAI to become more transparent. Revenues, losses, margins, capital needs, risks, partner dependencies and governance structures would have to be disclosed far more clearly than before. That could build trust, but it could also make uncomfortable questions visible.

Especially with OpenAI, this is not a normal software business. The company sits at the center of debates over AI safety, copyright, the labor market, disinformation, energy consumption and concentration of power.

Microsoft remains a central factor

One key issue for investors will be Microsoft’s role. The software company has invested billions in OpenAI and deeply integrated ChatGPT technology into its own products. For OpenAI, Microsoft is at once a capital provider, infrastructure partner and distribution channel.

This close relationship is both a strength and a risk. It gives OpenAI access to cloud capacity, enterprise customers and global reach. At the same time, investors will need to understand how dependent OpenAI remains on Microsoft, what rights both sides hold and how revenues are shared.

At a possible trillion-dollar valuation, such details will be decisive. The market will not look only at ChatGPT, but at contracts, margins and strategic dependencies.

Now the hype has to deliver numbers

OpenAI has shaped the AI market like almost no other company. ChatGPT became the symbol of a new technological phase. But with the move toward the stock market, the test changes. Private investors can bet on the future for a very long time. Public markets eventually demand comprehensible numbers.

The planned IPO is therefore becoming a stress test for the entire AI hype. OpenAI brings reach, brand power, technology and growth. But it also brings high costs, uncertain profitability, regulatory risks and enormous expectations.

If the IPO succeeds, OpenAI could become the new flagship stock of the AI era. If it fails or disappoints, it would be a warning signal for the entire industry.

SK