OpenAI files for IPO as AI giants race to public markets

OpenAI has taken the first formal step towards a stock market debut, filing a confidential registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. The move, disclosed in a brief statement, places the company behind ChatGPT alongside its closest rival Anthropic, which submitted its own confidential paperwork a week earlier, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, whose shares are set to begin trading on the Nasdaq this Friday. Together, the three firms represent a combined potential valuation of roughly $3.6 trillion, a figure that underscores the immense capital demands of the AI industry.

Viewed from Washington, the filings arrive at a moment of heightened government interest in the sector. The Trump administration is reportedly negotiating stakes in leading technology companies, adding a political dimension to the rush for public funds. The confidential process allows OpenAI to refine its prospectus with regulators away from market scrutiny, though the company cautioned that no timetable has been set. “It may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company,” it noted, while investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have signalled autumn as the most probable window.

Analysts in London and European financial centres see the trio of IPOs as a turning point for an industry that has until now been fuelled largely by private capital. OpenAI was valued at $852 billion in a recent funding round, while Anthropic reached $965 billion and SpaceX is targeting a share price that would value it at $1.75 trillion. The sums are staggering, yet they reflect the voracious need for cash to build data centres, hire scarce research talent, and develop ever more powerful models. OpenAI alone has told investors it plans to invest some $600 billion in AI infrastructure by 2030.

The competitive dynamics are equally striking. Anthropic’s filing came just days after it closed a $65 billion funding round, and OpenAI is restructuring to focus on revenue-generating corporate tools such as Codex. Meanwhile, smaller players like Perplexity are already charting their own course, with a planned IPO in 2028 irrespective of how the market receives the current wave. The rush to list is not without risk: ordinary investors may gain access to these highly anticipated stocks, but analysts warn that early exposure could be volatile, given the uncertain path to profitability and the intense rivalry among the AI giants.

Looking ahead, the success or failure of these offerings will serve as a barometer for the broader AI boom. If the public markets embrace the sector with the same enthusiasm that private investors have shown, the listings could cement a new generation of technology titans. If sentiment cools, the consequences would ripple far beyond Silicon Valley, affecting everything from national AI strategies to the flow of venture capital. For now, the race is on, and the starting gun has been fired not by one company, but by three in quick succession.