OpenAI plans confidential U.S. IPO filing as soon as September

OpenAI is preparing to confidentially file for a U.S. initial public offering in the coming weeks, a step that could bring one of the most closely watched companies in artificial intelligence into the public markets as early as September. The move would test investor appetite for an AI business that has helped drive the generative-AI boom while carrying some of the largest capital needs in the sector.

The company closed a record $122 billion funding round in March at an $852 billion post-money valuation, and its annualized revenue topped $25 billion at the end of February. OpenAI has been discussing an offering that could ultimately value it at as much as $1 trillion, with capital-raising ambitions starting at $60 billion on the low end. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are working with the company on a draft prospectus that it plans to submit under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s confidential review process.

That filing route gives eligible companies a way to submit registration documents for nonpublic staff review before a formal public debut. For OpenAI, it also preserves some breathing room as it navigates a business model built on heavy spending for chips, data centers and talent, even as it tries to convince investors that revenue growth can keep pace.

The IPO push comes after a major legal distraction eased. A jury rejected Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI on May 18, removing a high-profile challenge to the company’s governance and mission. The timing could also place OpenAI in the same market window as a potential SpaceX filing, a comparison that could sharpen scrutiny of both firms if they pursue public listings around the same time.

OpenAI’s structure remains central to that scrutiny. The company says its for-profit arm is now OpenAI Group PBC, a public benefit corporation controlled by the OpenAI Foundation, a setup designed to keep mission language in view even as shareholder expectations rise. OpenAI and Microsoft also said in April that they had amended and simplified their partnership, a reminder that the company’s most important commercial relationships are still evolving as it heads toward the market.

The listing would mark a watershed for AI commercialization. It would turn OpenAI into a benchmark for frontier-model valuations, expose its safety and governance claims to continuous public-market pressure, and force a reckoning over whether the industry’s spending spree can justify the scale of the returns it is promising.