SpaceX shares have begun trading on the US stock exchange, marking what could be the largest initial public offering in history – and the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, is set to become the world’s first trillionaire. The announcement came as OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, revealed plans to sell shares to the public, filing confidentially with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
OpenAI’s decision had been expected for months, but the timing is significant: it comes exactly one week after rival AI firm Anthropic said it was planning to go public. The three companies – SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic – all have a “vast need for cash”, said Sunil Krishnan from Aviva Investors, and “no-one wants to be last” in the game to go public, he told the BBC’s Today programme.
“SpaceX shares debut on US exchange as OpenAI files for IPO, rivaling Anthropic in AI funding race.”
Krishnan said the firms are making huge investments in AI infrastructure, including chips and training their AI models, all at massive expense. SpaceX is targeting a share price that would value the company at $1.75tn (£1.3tn). OpenAI’s most recent private valuation came in at $852bn; Anthropic’s hit $965bn.
OpenAI said it had 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 firm noted it was revealing its IPO plans because “we expect it to leak”.
Last week, OpenAI chief Sam Altman said in an interview with CNBC that he was in no rush to take the company public, and would do it “when it makes sense”. Anthropic was co-founded five years ago by Dario Amodei after he left OpenAI over disagreements with Altman. Today the companies compete for users, corporate customers and investors, jockeying with private valuations inching toward $1tn.
Investors are closely tracking the listings of the two generative AI firms, as their performance will help shape expectations for others to follow, said assistant professor Richard Crowley from the Singapore Management University. “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,” he said.
The race to go public is on – but neither OpenAI nor Anthropic has said exactly when their stock market debuts might occur.