The AI giant has confidentially filed for a U.S. debut expected this September.
Valuation targets are being floated near $1 trillion to match investor frenzy.
This is the ultimate test of whether the AI boom has any real revenue legs.
Combined with Anthropic’s push, the market is bracing for a massive liquidity drain.
Wall Street is salivating over the fees, but the valuation math is pure fantasy.
The AI bubble is about to meet the harsh reality of public market oversight.
OpenAI confidentially files IPO paperwork
OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) on Monday said it filed confidential paperwork for an initial public offering (IPO), setting up one of the most anticipated market debuts in years.
The company said it hasn’t decided on timing yet, and that it may take a while “because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company.”
In March, OpenAI said had a post money valuation of $852 billion.
The announcement sets up a showdown with rival Anthropic (ANTH.PVT), which filed confidential paperwork for its own IPO last week. Anthropic was last valued at $965 billion.
OpenAI’s filing comes just weeks after CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman defeated their former colleague and fellow co-founder Elon Musk in his lawsuit against the duo. Musk accused Altman and Brockman of unjustly enriching themselves by turning the once nonprofit company into a for-profit business.
But a California jury found that Musk filed his suit outside of the statute of limitations. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the US District Court for the Northern District of California accepted the jury’s verdict, handing Musk the loss.
In a post on his social media site X, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO indicated that he will appeal the verdict to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, describing the outcome as a “calendar technicality” rather than a ruling on the merits of the case.
OpenAI’s win was the last major obstacle standing in the company’s way of going public.