OpenAI Files for IPO, Valued at Over $850 Billion

OpenAI is preparing to confidentially file for IPO as soon as Friday with a valuation of more than $850 billion, marking one of the largest public market debuts in history.

Objective Facts

OpenAI is preparing to confidentially file a draft of its IPO prospectus as soon as Friday, as the company gears up for what could be one of the largest public markets debuts in history. The artificial intelligence company, which is valued at more than $850 billion by private investors, is working with banks including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to prepare to file in the coming days or weeks. The plan by the ChatGPT maker, which was last valued at $852 billion, comes two days after it fended off an existential court challenge from Elon Musk and threatens to upstage SpaceX's IPO filing. The filing follows a May 2026 jury verdict finding Elon Musk's lawsuit against the company time-barred, removing a significant legal overhang. OpenAI generated $13.1 billion in full-year revenue in 2025 and spent approximately $22 billion to do so, resulting in a net loss of approximately $9 billion, with losses of $14 billion expected in 2026 alone and profitability not forecast until 2030.

Right-Leaning Perspective

Cornell University finance professor Minmo Gahng notes that OpenAI is one of the rare private companies whose products are already used daily by hundreds of millions of users, and that kind of household-name recognition could generate substantial retail demand and support a richer valuation than fundamentals alone would justify. The global AI market is projected to exceed $1 trillion in the coming years, and ChatGPT attracted 900 million weekly active users faster than any consumer application in history, with OpenAI sitting at the centre of that expansion. 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most consequential years for technology IPOs in decades, with OpenAI preparing for an IPO that could potentially value it near the trillion-dollar mark – making it one of the largest technology IPOs ever attempted. Enterprise revenue is now 40% of OpenAI's business and on track to reach parity with consumer by end of 2026, with Codex having 3 million weekly users and the ads pilot booking $100 million-plus ARR in under six weeks. The company has told potential investors it aims to generate $280 billion in annual revenue by 2030, with the velocity of valuation growth from $300 billion to $852 billion in a matter of months reflecting both the explosive growth of OpenAI's business and the intensity of investor appetite for AI infrastructure companies. OpenAI's annualized revenue rate exited 2025 above $20 billion, against estimated full-year actual revenue of approximately $13.1 billion, reflecting rapid growth concentrated in the second half of the year. None of the cash burn considerations necessarily mean OpenAI is a bad investment, though buying into the largest tech IPO in history requires clear-eyed assessment of the risks alongside the opportunity, with the AI market's potential being genuinely enormous but a significant portion of that potential already priced in.

Deep Dive

OpenAI's IPO filing represents a critical inflection point for both the company and the broader AI industry. The filing follows a May 2026 jury verdict finding Elon Musk's lawsuit time-barred, removing a significant legal overhang. The company's $850 billion valuation comes after closing a $122 billion funding round in March 2026 at $852 billion post-money valuation, co-led by SoftBank alongside Andreessen Horowitz, D.E. Shaw Ventures, MGX, TPG, and T. Rowe Price-advised accounts, with strategic partners Amazon, NVIDIA, and Microsoft also participating. OpenAI generated $13.1 billion in full-year revenue in 2025 and spent approximately $22 billion to do so, resulting in a net loss of approximately $9 billion, with internal projections showing the burn rate remaining at approximately 57% of revenue through 2026 and 2027, with operating losses projected to balloon to roughly three-quarters of revenue in 2028 before an expected turn toward profitability around 2029 to 2030. The specific angle of this story—OpenAI's imminent filing following the Musk verdict—exposes genuine tensions that both perspectives acknowledge. Left-wing critics like Akhlaq Siddiqi correctly identify that cash burn has become unsustainable, with recent internal projections revealing staggering figures including the $14 billion deficit expected in 2026. However, critics overstate the case when they frame this as proof of bubble collapse; the velocity of valuation growth from $300 billion to $852 billion in a matter of months does reflect both explosive business growth and intense investor appetite for AI infrastructure. Right-leaning coverage correctly emphasizes ChatGPT's 800 million weekly active users and the company's household-name brand recognition difficult for competitors to replicate, but understates that Anthropic's annualized revenue is expected to surpass $45 billion shortly with an internally projected burn rate expected to drop to approximately 9% of revenue by 2027, a substantially cleaner financial trajectory than OpenAI's, with some institutional investors expressing reluctance on OpenAI specifically. The critical unresolved question centers on whether OpenAI can monetize its infrastructure investments fast enough to justify a trillion-dollar valuation. CFO Sarah Friar has publicly voiced concern that revenue growth may not keep pace with compute spending, telling colleagues she is worried the business might not be able to pay for future computing contracts if sales don't grow fast enough. This internal disagreement on timing between CEO Sam Altman pushing for a 2026 IPO aiming for a valuation near $1 trillion and CFO Sarah Friar reportedly urging caution, suggesting the company should wait until 2027 to ensure it can meet rigorous reporting standards is not background noise but a material signal. The IPO prospectus will be the first moment these assumptions are stress-tested by public-market disclosure standards, determining whether the market values OpenAI as a justified infrastructure play or a speculative bubble.

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OpenAI Files for IPO, Valued at Over $850 Billion

OpenAI is preparing to confidentially file for IPO as soon as Friday with a valuation of more than $850 billion, marking one of the largest public market debuts in history.

May 20, 2026· Updated May 21, 2026
What's Going On

OpenAI is preparing to confidentially file a draft of its IPO prospectus as soon as Friday, as the company gears up for what could be one of the largest public markets debuts in history. The artificial intelligence company, which is valued at more than $850 billion by private investors, is working with banks including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to prepare to file in the coming days or weeks. The plan by the ChatGPT maker, which was last valued at $852 billion, comes two days after it fended off an existential court challenge from Elon Musk and threatens to upstage SpaceX's IPO filing. The filing follows a May 2026 jury verdict finding Elon Musk's lawsuit against the company time-barred, removing a significant legal overhang. OpenAI generated $13.1 billion in full-year revenue in 2025 and spent approximately $22 billion to do so, resulting in a net loss of approximately $9 billion, with losses of $14 billion expected in 2026 alone and profitability not forecast until 2030.

Left says: Tech Equity CEO Catherine Bracy argued the jury's verdict should not be interpreted as a broader endorsement of OpenAI's conduct, stating 'Let's not confuse the jury's verdict with justice or accountability for the people of California'. Critics contend it is difficult to reconcile how with essentially the same board, OpenAI can adhere to a charitable mission while also maximizing profits for a commercial entity.
Right says: The resolution of the Musk lawsuit removed what multiple observers described as a significant obstacle to an IPO, with IPOX Vice President Kat Liu stating 'Resolving that legal overhang removed a major obstacle to an IPO and likely gave OpenAI the confidence to accelerate its timeline'. Market observers highlight OpenAI's rare combination of massive user adoption, rapid revenue growth, and dominant brand position as foundations for a historic valuation.
✓ Common Ground
Both critics and supporters acknowledge that competition from Anthropic, Google, Meta, and others makes the path to durable positive cash flow uncertain.
Several observers across the spectrum note that the core risk in an early IPO is that going public forces a level of disclosure that reframes the loss trajectory in a way that private capital has so far been willing to overlook.
Both bullish and skeptical analysts observe that OpenAI's price-to-sales ratio at $830 billion would be roughly 65 times 2025 revenue, far higher than most technology companies.
Observers across perspectives recognize that the financial trajectories of OpenAI and Anthropic have diverged sharply in recent months, painting a picture of a market leader under pressure and a rival gaining momentum.
Objective Deep Dive

OpenAI's IPO filing represents a critical inflection point for both the company and the broader AI industry. The filing follows a May 2026 jury verdict finding Elon Musk's lawsuit time-barred, removing a significant legal overhang. The company's $850 billion valuation comes after closing a $122 billion funding round in March 2026 at $852 billion post-money valuation, co-led by SoftBank alongside Andreessen Horowitz, D.E. Shaw Ventures, MGX, TPG, and T. Rowe Price-advised accounts, with strategic partners Amazon, NVIDIA, and Microsoft also participating. OpenAI generated $13.1 billion in full-year revenue in 2025 and spent approximately $22 billion to do so, resulting in a net loss of approximately $9 billion, with internal projections showing the burn rate remaining at approximately 57% of revenue through 2026 and 2027, with operating losses projected to balloon to roughly three-quarters of revenue in 2028 before an expected turn toward profitability around 2029 to 2030.

The specific angle of this story—OpenAI's imminent filing following the Musk verdict—exposes genuine tensions that both perspectives acknowledge. Left-wing critics like Akhlaq Siddiqi correctly identify that cash burn has become unsustainable, with recent internal projections revealing staggering figures including the $14 billion deficit expected in 2026. However, critics overstate the case when they frame this as proof of bubble collapse; the velocity of valuation growth from $300 billion to $852 billion in a matter of months does reflect both explosive business growth and intense investor appetite for AI infrastructure. Right-leaning coverage correctly emphasizes ChatGPT's 800 million weekly active users and the company's household-name brand recognition difficult for competitors to replicate, but understates that Anthropic's annualized revenue is expected to surpass $45 billion shortly with an internally projected burn rate expected to drop to approximately 9% of revenue by 2027, a substantially cleaner financial trajectory than OpenAI's, with some institutional investors expressing reluctance on OpenAI specifically.

The critical unresolved question centers on whether OpenAI can monetize its infrastructure investments fast enough to justify a trillion-dollar valuation. CFO Sarah Friar has publicly voiced concern that revenue growth may not keep pace with compute spending, telling colleagues she is worried the business might not be able to pay for future computing contracts if sales don't grow fast enough. This internal disagreement on timing between CEO Sam Altman pushing for a 2026 IPO aiming for a valuation near $1 trillion and CFO Sarah Friar reportedly urging caution, suggesting the company should wait until 2027 to ensure it can meet rigorous reporting standards is not background noise but a material signal. The IPO prospectus will be the first moment these assumptions are stress-tested by public-market disclosure standards, determining whether the market values OpenAI as a justified infrastructure play or a speculative bubble.

◈ Tone Comparison

Left-leaning coverage employs urgent, cautionary language—words like 'unsustainable,' 'bubble,' 'desperate,' and 'existential risk'—emphasizing governance failures and cash burn as proof the AI market is overheated. Right-leaning and financial coverage uses growth-focused framing—'explosive growth,' 'household name,' 'trillion-dollar opportunity'—emphasizing revenue trajectory, user adoption, and competitive necessity, with more neutral technical analysis of valuation multiples and market conditions.