OpenAI is officially available to the public. The AI giant announced on Monday that it has filed for an IPO with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
“We expect this to leak, so we’re just announcing it,” OpenAI said statement. “We haven’t decided on the timing yet; it could be a while, because there are things we want to do as a private company that are probably easier. But it’s a complex set of trade-offs that allow us to go public sooner if it’s the best.”
The filing is confidential until now, which means the masses won’t be able to see the much-coveted details of OpenAI’s financials and its murky path to profitability until the SEC makes it public. Companies prefer confidential filings because it helps them seek regulatory approval before releasing financial information to public scrutiny.
OpenAI is currently being evaluated 852 billion dollarsand reports The suit executives are aiming for a stock valuation of up to $1 trillion
OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit artificial intelligence laboratory. Ten years later, at the end of 2025, the former nonprofit completed a recapitalization process to become a for-profit public benefit corporation.
OpenAI is credited with starting the AI hype cycle by releasing ChatGPT in 2022.
Despite the popularity of the company’s chatbot, “ChatGPT” has practically become synonymous with the word “AI chatbot”, a leading position argued In recent months, rivals Anthropic and Google have stepped up with high-profile releases and wowed users. The comparisons were bad enough that OpenAI announced a “code red” in December, even before Anthropic made headlines with Claude Cowork in February and Mythos in April.
The road to this IPO is full of obstacles. Earlier this week, a jury ruled in favor of OpenAI was sued by co-founder Elon Musk The billionaire appealed to the court to rest Converting OpenAI for commercial purposes and to chase CEO Sam Altman from the company.
Plus, there’s the matter of profitability, or lack thereof. For several months now, the company has been engaged in cost-cutting and revenue-maximizing efforts, including the introduction of ads on ChatGPT and the shutdown of the Sora video generator.
But despite these measures, the AI giant may still have a tough road to profitability. Last month, the Wall Street Journal said that ChatGPT is growing slowed down By the end of 2025, the chatbot has missed its domestic revenue and active user goals, according to people familiar with the matter. The report also claimed that CFO Sarah Friar was worried about revenue growth and was unsure if OpenAI could pay for multiple computing contracts.
Another final report, this time InformationFriar and Altman claimed to be at odds over OpenAI’s IPO timeline, while the CFO believed the company was not well-positioned for an IPO this year.
OpenAI is the third of three major AI-related IPOs the market has lined up for this year. The first was SpaceX, led by OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk, whose legal beef with Altman and company was resolved last month in favor of OpenAI. SpaceX is expected to officially begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday. The latter was OpenAI’s number one competitor. anthropicfiled for an IPO privately last week.
If good, suggestions can be positive influence in the broader US market. But if they crash and burn, it will be reflected in the entire economic system.
Investors already remarkably cautious Justifying the staggering amount of money poured into Silicon Valley’s AI infrastructure. Some experts are working on disaster scenarios of the very real possibility that demand for AI may not materialize as expected in the short term, and that the investment some say supports the U.S. economy could burst the dreaded bubble.
Any information OpenAI shares during the IPO process regarding its financial performance will be a rare and valuable insight into whether the AI industry has results to back up the hype.
