OpenAI is preparing to confidentially file for a U.S. initial public offering in the coming weeks, moving the ChatGPT maker closer to a stock market debut that could test investor demand for one of the largest private companies in artificial intelligence.
The company is aiming to go public as early as September and is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on draft IPO documents, Reuters reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter. OpenAI did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The planned filing comes after OpenAI was last valued at $852 billion and raised $122 billion earlier this year, a funding round Reuters described as likely Silicon Valley’s largest ever. Reuters reported last year that OpenAI had been laying the groundwork for an offering that could value the company at up to $1 trillion, with preliminary discussions involving a raise of at least $60 billion.
A confidential filing would allow OpenAI to begin the regulatory review process without immediately releasing its financial details to the public. The company could revise or delay its plans depending on market conditions, regulatory feedback and internal decisions.
The move would bring a company closely associated with the generative AI boom into a public market still weighing how to price the technology. Since the launch of ChatGPT, investors have poured money into chips, cloud computing, data centers and AI software. OpenAI’s listing would give public investors a direct way to value one of the best-known companies in the sector.
The timing also follows a legal win for OpenAI. Reuters said the IPO plan comes two days after the company fended off a court challenge from Elon Musk, who had accused OpenAI and Chief Executive Sam Altman of departing from the organization’s original mission. The ruling reduced one obstacle as the company moves toward a possible listing.
OpenAI’s road to public markets is not simple. It is seeking to fund some of the most expensive infrastructure in technology while competing with Google, Anthropic, xAI, Meta and other firms building large language models. Model development requires large spending on chips, energy, cloud infrastructure, researchers and product teams.
The company has also faced questions over growth targets and spending. Reuters reported in April, citing the Wall Street Journal, that OpenAI had missed some internal revenue and user goals, raising concern among some leaders about whether revenue was growing quickly enough to support future computing contracts. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and CFO Sarah Friar told Reuters at the time that they were aligned on buying compute and working on the issue.
Those questions would become more visible in an IPO filing. Investors would likely examine revenue growth, subscriber trends, enterprise sales, cloud costs, customer concentration and long-term capital commitments. They would also look at how OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft supports the business and what obligations come with that relationship.
OpenAI has already started acting more like a company preparing for public scrutiny. Friar told CNBC in April that OpenAI planned to reserve part of its IPO shares for individual investors. She also said it was “good hygiene” for a company of OpenAI’s size to look and operate like a public company, according to Reuters.
The company raised more than $3 billion from individual investors in its latest funding round, above an initial target of $1 billion through private placements, Reuters reported. That demand could shape how OpenAI handles a public offering, especially if it follows other large technology companies in giving retail investors a share of the allocation.
OpenAI’s valuation remains one of the central questions. Reuters reported in April that some of its backers were scrutinizing the $852 billion valuation as the company shifted more attention toward enterprise customers to respond to competition from Anthropic and Google. OpenAI said at the time that its fundraising round was oversubscribed and backed by leading global investors.
Competition has sharpened across the market. Google has moved quickly to put AI into search, cloud and productivity tools. Anthropic has gained traction with Claude among businesses and developers. xAI is building its own models and infrastructure. Meta continues to push open models as part of its strategy.
OpenAI still has broad consumer reach. Reuters reported that ChatGPT had more than 900 million weekly active users and more than 50 million consumer subscribers, according to figures OpenAI released earlier this year.
The filing would arrive in a crowded year for large technology listings. Reuters said OpenAI’s plans could come near an expected SpaceX IPO filing, potentially putting two of the most closely watched private companies in front of investors at the same time.
That comparison would carry unusual weight. OpenAI and SpaceX are different businesses, but both require large capital commitments, both are closely tied to prominent technology figures and both have shaped investor expectations around the next generation of infrastructure companies.
OpenAI’s listing would also test how much tolerance public investors have for companies that need enormous upfront spending before producing stable returns. The strongest AI companies may command high valuations, but they also face costs that can rise with every new model generation.
An IPO prospectus would provide the clearest public look yet at the economics behind OpenAI’s growth. Until now, much of the company’s financial picture has been known through fundraising reports, investor comments and media disclosures. A public filing would put more of that information into a regulated document.
The company’s business has changed rapidly since ChatGPT became a consumer product. OpenAI now sells subscriptions, developer access, enterprise tools and partnerships. Its products are used for coding, writing, customer support, research and office work. The question for investors is how much of that usage becomes recurring, profitable revenue.
OpenAI’s governance may draw attention as well. The company’s structure grew out of a nonprofit research organization and later added a capped-profit arm. That history has been central to public debate over its mission, its investors and its relationship with Microsoft. Any IPO would require investors to understand how control, profit rights and public-shareholder expectations fit together.
A public listing could give OpenAI more capital and a broader investor base. It could also increase pressure. Public companies face quarterly reporting, analyst scrutiny, shareholder demands and market swings. For a company operating in a fast-moving technical field, that pressure could shape how it balances research, safety work, infrastructure spending and product releases.
No filing has been made public. The reported timeline could change.
But the direction is clearer. OpenAI is moving from private-market financing toward a possible public-market test. If the company files in the coming weeks, the AI boom will face one of its largest valuation questions yet: what investors are willing to pay for the company that turned generative AI into a mass-market business.