OpenAI submitted a confidential S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, moving toward a potential public offering as rival startup Anthropic and Elon Musk's SpaceX prepare to do the same.
The ChatGPT maker, valued at $852 billion, says it may be a while before it goes public but wants the option to move sooner
David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images
OpenAI submitted a confidential S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, moving toward a potential public offering as rival startup Anthropic and Elon Musk's SpaceX prepare to do the same.
The company is valued at $852 billion following a funding round closed earlier this year. A tender offer is also in the works that would let employees cash out shares, CNBC reported, citing a person familiar with the plans. Goldman Sachs $GS and Morgan Stanley $MS are leading the filing process ahead of a potential fall listing, according to The Wall Street Journal.
OpenAI said in a statement that it hasn't committed to a timeline because "there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company." The firm added that the filing "gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best."
Anthropic submitted its own confidential IPO prospectus a week earlier at a valuation of $965 billion. SpaceX has moved furthest along among the three, having already kicked off an investor roadshow last week ahead of what would be the largest IPO in history, according to The Wall Street Journal. SpaceX plans to sell shares at $135 apiece for a total raise of $75 billion, which would give Musk's company a valuation of around $1.77 trillion.
Investment bankers have advised both OpenAI and Anthropic that an early mover advantage is at stake, according to the Wall Street Journal. The first to list would set the terms for how investors categorize the AI sector and gain access to enormous amounts of capital looking for an entry point into the industry.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, writing separately on Monday, framed the moment as the beginning of a third phase for the company.
"The economy is beginning to reshape around AI," he wrote. "The central question now is how to make advanced AI abundant, affordable, safe, useful, and easy enough for every person and organization to benefit from it."
OpenAI's path to a public debut carries significant financial complexity. The company closed a $122 billion funding round in March at an $852 billion valuation and plans to spend heavily on semiconductors and data centers through 2030. Investor forecasts reviewed by The Wall Street Journal suggest the pace of OpenAI's cash consumption would be unprecedented among publicly traded companies. OpenAI has also missed some internal revenue targets recently, while Anthropic has pulled ahead among business customers, The Wall Street Journal reported.
ChatGPT now supports more than 900 million weekly active users, the company said.
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