The global race to bring artificial intelligence to public markets hit a major milestone Monday, as ChatGPT-developer OpenAI announced it has submitted a confidential initial public offering (IPO) application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), laying the groundwork for a future public listing.
In an official statement confirming the long-speculated move, OpenAI stressed that no concrete timeline for the IPO has been set, noting that a public debut could still be some distance away. “We have 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 company said. The firm added that it chose to publicly disclose its filing now to preempt an information leak, while framing the decision to go public as a “complicated set of tradeoffs” that balances growth goals and long-term strategy. Even with the confidential submission completed, the company retained flexibility to accelerate the process if conditions align: “we now have the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best.”
OpenAI’s announcement comes exactly one week after its top industry rival Anthropic, creator of the Claude AI chatbot, revealed its own plans to pursue a public listing. The timing also precedes this week’s highly anticipated Nasdaq debut of SpaceX, Elon Musk’s aerospace firm that developed the Grok AI chatbot, which is set to go public Friday at a valuation of $1.75 trillion.
The parallel IPO moves by OpenAI and Anthropic are the latest chapter in a years-long rivalry that stretches back to Anthropic’s founding five years ago. Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s co-founder and CEO, launched the company after leaving OpenAI amid strategic disagreements with Sam Altman, OpenAI’s co-founder and current CEO. Today, the two companies compete head-to-head across every key metric: vying for consumer users, enterprise clients, and top-tier investment, with their private market valuations both climbing rapidly toward the $1 trillion mark in recent months. OpenAI’s most recent private valuation stands at $852 billion, while Anthropic closed its latest funding round at a $965 billion valuation.
With both firms now moving toward public markets, a new subplot has emerged in the AI race: which company will cross the finish line to a public listing first. Neither firm has announced a specific date for their debut, and Altman reinforced OpenAI’s deliberate approach just last week. In a CNBC interview, Altman said he was in no rush to take the company public, adding that he would only move forward “when it makes sense.”
The wave of AI IPO plans underscores the explosive growth of the generative AI sector over the past three years, as investor and public interest in artificial innovation continues to drive unprecedented valuations for the industry’s leading players.