From nonprofit to $1 trillion titan: OpenAI’s journey toward a landmark public listing
OpenAI is preparing for a potential IPO that could value the company at up to $1 trillion, marking one of the largest listings in history. The ChatGPT maker may file as early as 2026 following a major corporate restructuring that reduced its reliance on Microsoft.
New Delhi: OpenAI is planning an initial public offering (IPO) that would potentially make the company worth up to $1 trillion, which, according to reports, would make the company one of the largest IPOs in history. People who are close to the case say that the ChatGPT company is planning to go to regulators no later than the second half of 2026, although some insiders think that the listing might happen a year later in 2027. Early indications show that OpenAI can tap at least $60 billion, subject to business performance and market-related factors.
The move is an indication of a big change to the fast-growing AI giant, which has recently reorganised itself to reduce its dependence on Microsoft. The IPO would make publicly accessible capital markets to support the ambivalent plans of the CEO, Sam Altman, to invest trillions in AI infrastructure. The losses of OpenAI are growing too as it scales its operations and product development, as its revenue is expected to reach up to $20 billion a year by the end of the year.
IPO preparations follow major restructuring
OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit in 2015, and since then its mission as a company has had multiple transitions to balance its mission with financial development. Its recent reconstruction formed the OpenAI Foundation, now with a 26 per cent stake in the OpenAI Group, and it will be able to acquire additional shares in case of some performance conditions being satisfied. This arrangement makes the nonprofit stay under control and also provides it a financial incentive in the success of the company.
Investors and market momentum
A trillion-dollar IPO would be a big triumph for investors like SoftBank, Thrive Capital, Abu Dhabi MGX, and Microsoft, which would retain a significant stake with an estimated 27 percent ownership after spending $13 billion in the company. It is also the possible listing against the backdrop of an AI market boom in general, with AI cloud company CoreWeave stock increasing three times since its IPO earlier this year, and Nvidia becoming the first company in the world to be valued at more than half a trillion.
In a recent livestream, Sam Altman admitted that the most probable route of OpenAI going public would be the most appropriate due to its increasing capital requirements. Although the company states that it does not focus on the IPO at the moment, the preparations being made indicate that OpenAI is preparing to become the most valuable tech company in the history of stock market companies.