OpenAI files for IPO as AI giants race to go public

The company behind ChatGPT has taken a formal step toward a stock market debut, filing confidential plans with US regulators just one week after its rival Anthropic did the same. OpenAI said on Monday it had made a submission to the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering, though it stressed it was in no rush. “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,” the company said in a statement. The move had been expected for months but was prompted, OpenAI admitted, by the risk of leaks: “We expect it to leak.” The filing comes amid a wave of heavyweight IPOs that also includes Anthropic and Elon Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, which is set to debut on the Nasdaq on Friday. SpaceX plans to sell 555.6m shares at $135 each, raising $75bn and valuing the company at $1.75tn – a record for a stock market launch. Up to a quarter of those shares could be reserved for individual investors, a larger proportion than is typical. In the UK, platforms including AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown are offering clients the chance to bid, with minimum subscriptions of about £1,000. “Normally it is quite difficult for UK-based retail investors to access US IPOs, but a number of UK brokers and investment platforms are offering access to this one, sensing both strong client demand and, no doubt, a commercial opportunity,” said Jason Hollands, managing director of BestInvest. The three firms share a “vast need for cash”, said Sunil Krishnan from Aviva Investors. “No-one wants to be last” in the race to go public, he told the BBC. The companies are making huge investments in AI infrastructure, chips and model training. OpenAI and Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude, have been fierce rivals since Dario Amodei co-founded Anthropic five years ago after leaving OpenAI over disagreements with chief executive Sam Altman. They compete for users, corporate customers and investors, with private valuations inching toward $1tn – OpenAI at $852bn and Anthropic at $965bn. Now they will also compete for the first public stock market debut, though neither has set a date. “We might typically think of OpenAI and Anthropic as competitors, but the fate of their financing is intrinsically intertwined through the public’s perception of the generative AI space,” said Richard Crowley, assistant professor at Singapore Management University. Last week Altman told CNBC he was in no rush to go public and would do so “when it makes sense”.