OpenAI has submitted a confidential draft registration statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed initial public offering (IPO).
OpenAI has not disclosed a target valuation, expected share price, or the amount it intends to raise, noting that timing remains undecided. According to the announcement, the company stated it published the announcement pre-emptively, anticipating a leak.
OpenAI was last valued at USD 852 billion on a post-money basis following a funding round of USD 122 billion secured in late March 2026. Despite the scale of that raise, the company projects spending roughly the same sum on computing power for AI research alone by 2028, with a projected burn of USD 85 billion that year even assuming sales double from the prior year. In addition, the company's chief financial officer has reportedly flagged concerns about the sustainability of data centre expenditure.
Valuations, comps, and the public market window
The sequencing of the two filings carries strategic implications. According to a PitchBook analysis, Anthropic's disclosure will establish a valuation benchmark that could constrain how OpenAI prices its own offering. Anthropic has presented a comparatively favourable financial picture, with the company stating it is close to recording its first quarterly profit, though it recently completed a USD 65 billion funding round and has additional chip-allocated debt in the pipeline.
On secondary markets, the gap between the two has narrowed. Anthropic surged to a USD 1 trillion valuation on secondary trading platform Forge Global, while OpenAI was recorded at around USD 880 billion in April 2026. Secondary market data also shows Anthropic's valuation rising 123% year-to-date compared with approximately 11% for OpenAI.
The broader market context adds further complexity. SpaceX is also expected to debut publicly at a reported valuation of USD 1.75 trillion, meaning three of the most prominent private technology companies could list within months of each other, a concentration of high-profile offerings not seen since the dot-com era. Moreover, analysts note that whichever AI firm lists first is likely to capture a larger share of available institutional capital, much of which may already have been absorbed by SpaceX.
Company background and governance considerations
OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research laboratory and gained widespread public recognition following the release of ChatGPT in 2022. The company has since expanded into enterprise and government markets, reporting approximately 900 million weekly active users. Its product range has evolved considerably beyond its original research mandate, though that transition has not been without controversy.
Governance has remained a persistent concern since 2022, when the company's board removed its chief executive before reinstating him days later. Prospective public market investors are expected to examine the company's governance structure closely, alongside a series of ongoing legal proceedings, including a recently filed complaint from the state of Florida and a lawsuit brought by co-founder Elon Musk that was dismissed earlier this year after a court found the claim was filed outside the statute of limitations.
A confidential filing permits OpenAI to begin IPO preparations without publicly releasing financial statements or risk disclosures, preserving flexibility over timing. Whether the company ultimately proceeds quickly or remains private for an extended period will likely depend on market conditions, competitive dynamics, and the outcome of Anthropic's own listing process.
