OpenAI has confidentially filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at an $852 billion valuation, according to a report carried by MSN (Bing News). The same report notes that an eventual listing could push the company's value past $1 trillion.
Despite the filing, OpenAI is signaling patience. The company says the timing of any public listing remains undecided and that going public "may be a while" away, per the MSN report. A confidential filing lets a company begin the IPO process and work with regulators without publicly disclosing financial details upfront, so the move does not commit OpenAI to a near-term debut.
The step comes as rival Anthropic moves in a similar direction. Reporting from The Times of India, surfaced via Google News, frames both OpenAI and Anthropic as nearing IPOs, and cites Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella telling companies why frontier AI models matter to every business.
If the numbers hold, OpenAI would be among the most valuable companies ever to approach the public markets, and a listing above $1 trillion would rank it alongside the largest technology firms in the world.
Why it matters: Public listings by OpenAI and Anthropic would give everyday investors a direct stake in the companies building frontier artificial intelligence, and would force these famously private firms to open their finances to public scrutiny for the first time.