Wall Street is starting to handicap one of the most anticipated stock-market debuts in years: an initial public offering from OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.
According to Reuters, Bob Lang, founder and chief options analyst of Explosive Options, argues that OpenAI is more likely to go public later this year than to wait until 2027. Lang points to strong market conditions and heavy investor demand as the forces that could pull the timeline forward.
Not everyone sees a fast track. A report from thestreet.com suggests that OpenAI's roughly $1 trillion ambition could actually delay its IPO, hinting that the company's sheer scale and capital plans may complicate the path to public markets.
The uncertainty is already rippling into related stocks. Yahoo Finance reports that shares of chipmaker Micron fell on reports that OpenAI may delay its historic public debut — a sign that investors view OpenAI's plans as closely tied to the broader artificial-intelligence supply chain, including the memory and processing chips that power AI systems.
Taken together, the sources paint a picture of a market trying to read tea leaves: one analyst betting on an earlier listing driven by demand, another report warning that OpenAI's enormous financial goals could push the timing out. No firm date has been confirmed in these items.
Why it matters: an OpenAI IPO would be one of the largest tests yet of how much public investors are willing to pay for the AI boom, and even rumors about its timing are already moving the stocks of the companies that supply the industry.