OpenAI files for IPO, but unsure when it wants to go public

‘There are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company’, says OpenAI.

OpenAI has confidentially filed to go public, but said it could be a “while” before it ceases to be a private company.

“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,” OpenAI said in a short statement yesterday (8 June). “But it’s a complicated set of trade-offs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best.”

Estimates from last year suggest an initial public offering (IPO) could value the ChatGPT-maker at up to $1trn, in one of the largest listings in history. The company, at the time, was expected to raise at least $60bn in the IPO.

While newer reports suggest that the company is also in talks with the US government in the hope that it purchases some of its shares once it goes public.

The IPO announcement comes just days after the $852bn AI company’s fiercest rival Anthropic also filed to go public.

Meanwhile, the tug of war for the biggest IPO raise is currently led by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is expected to raise a targeted $75bn in its listing. The X and xAI parent company filed for an IPO late last month.

Anthropic – currently more valuable than OpenAI at $965bn – has been encroaching on its enterprise customer base, with reports from earlier this year finding that the Claude-parent was capturing a significant portion of first-time enterprise AI customers over OpenAI.

As a countermeasure, OpenAI is reportedly working on the biggest ChatGPT overhaul since its launch in 2022 to better compete with Anthropic, which has held a narrower focus on its enterprise business.

According to reports, the new desktop ‘superapp’ will focus strongly on OpenAI’s coding tool Codex, a move that reflects shifting interests from AI chatbots to agents that perform tasks for users. The app will also feature the AI chatbot, as well as the AI-powered browser Atlas.

OpenAI executives view ChatGPT as an introductory tool to encourage pick-up of higher-value products. The changes are expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks.

The company has also made big name hires to develop its “next generation of personal agents”, while shutting down less profitable ventures such as its Sora video generation model.

A majority of OpenAI’s 1bn monthly active ChatGPT customers use the free version of the tool. The company has between 5m and 9m business users, according to different blogs on its website, while the Financial Times reports that it has 2m businesses under its wing and 5m weekly active Codex users.

The company expects revenue from its business customers, which represents 40pc of its total revenue, to grow to 50pc by the end of the year.

Still, OpenAI is far from being profitable, making around $13bn in revenue last year with a planned spending of about $600bn by 2030.

Sources told CNBC earlier this year that the company projects its total revenue for 2030 to be more than $280bn – nearly 20-times its 2025 earnings – with near equal contributions from its consumer and enterprise businesses.

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