By the time the opening bell rang on Friday, SpaceX had become the largest initial public offering in history — a feat that could make its billionaire CEO Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. The rocket company began trading on the Nasdaq at a share price valuing it at $1.75tn (£1.3tn), catapulting it into the public markets just as two of the biggest names in artificial intelligence jostle to follow.
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, revealed on Monday that it had filed confidentially with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to pursue its own IPO — exactly one week after rival Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude, announced the same intention. The timing is no coincidence. Sunil Krishnan from Aviva Investors told the BBC's Today programme that all three firms have a "vast need for cash" and that "no-one wants to be last" in the game to go public.
“SpaceX debuts on Nasdaq with $1.75tn valuation, as OpenAI and Anthropic race to go public.”
The race is fuelled by the enormous cost of building AI infrastructure. Krishnan pointed to the massive investments required for chips and training models, expenses that have driven OpenAI's private valuation to $852bn and Anthropic's to $965bn. Both companies are now competing not only for users and investors but also for the chance to debut first on the stock market, though neither has set a date.
OpenAI's chief executive, Sam Altman, said last week he was in no rush. In a CNBC interview, he stated he would take the company public "when it makes sense". But the firm's Monday statement acknowledged that revealing its plans was necessary because "we expect it to leak". The company added: "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 two AI rivals have been fierce since Dario Amodei co-founded Anthropic five years ago, leaving OpenAI after disagreements with Altman. Now their fates are intertwined. "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, an assistant professor at Singapore Management University.
As investors watch closely, the performance of these listings will shape expectations for others to follow. But with SpaceX already on the board and its billionaire founder on the brink of history, the pressure is on for the AI giants to decide who blinks first.