OpenAI eyes IPO filing with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley on board

Goldman Sachs is poised to sit on one of Wall Street’s most watched AI transactions, a mandate that could define who inside the bank wins prestige, fee credit, and the next round of promotion math. OpenAI was preparing to confidentially file a draft IPO prospectus as soon as Friday and was working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on the listing, a signal that the bank’s influence in AI now reaches well beyond lending and into the core public-markets franchise.

The timing matters because OpenAI is already valued at $852 billion after a March 31 funding round, according to CNBC and Bloomberg. If the company moves ahead, the offering could arrive in the fall, with some coverage pointing to September as a possible debut window. That would put Goldman in the middle of what could become one of the largest public debuts in recent memory, with the kind of league-table impact that can cascade through investment banking, equity capital markets, research, derivatives, and client coverage.

For Goldman staff, the bigger story is not just the size of the deal but what it says about where the AI money is flowing. OpenAI’s latest fundraising was tied to chips, data centers, and talent, the same spending categories that have been driving deal activity and valuation debates across the sector. A successful listing would likely create follow-on work for bankers covering the company, analysts writing on AI capex, and salespeople fielding client questions about who benefits from the buildout.

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said behaving like a public company is “good hygiene,” a phrase that captures how quickly the biggest private AI firms are adapting to public-market discipline. OpenAI also planned to reserve a portion of IPO shares for retail investors, suggesting the company wants a broad base of individual holders at the start of trading.

The IPO push came after OpenAI and Microsoft amended their partnership on April 27. Microsoft’s license to OpenAI intellectual property was no longer exclusive, revenue-share payments were set to continue through 2030, and Microsoft remained a major shareholder. That structure will matter to Goldman bankers and investors alike, because it shapes how the market will value control, dependence, and future monetization.

OpenAI’s listing plans also followed a legal victory over Elon Musk, after a federal jury found his claims time-barred. OpenAI said its focus “remains on execution” and that it regularly evaluates strategic options as part of normal governance. For Goldman, the message is simpler: the bank is in the lane for the AI era’s marquee public offering, and that kind of assignment can strengthen an entire franchise.