OpenAI IPO: What Investors Must See From the Top AI Startup Before Buying Its Stock

OpenAI joins key rivals Anthropic and SpaceX (SPCX) in filing for an initial public offering (“IPO”). The firm behind ChatGPT said that it had submitted its IPO documents confidentially to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).

The IPO would be one of the market’s largest debuts of all time, if it happens. OpenAI was most recently valued at $852 billion, following its March fundraising round, which raised $122 billion. It is the largest single capital raise ever, dwarfing even the SpaceX IPO. OpenAI raised cash from a Who’s Who of big tech companies: Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA), and SoftBank (SFTBY).

As part of its IPO announcement, OpenAI did not reveal key details such as the amount of money it was looking to raise, a potential valuation for the company, or even a time frame for the IPO. Instead, it looked somewhat like a defensive move, as the company stated in a blog post: “We expect it to leak so we’re just announcing it.”

OpenAI’s decision follows hot on the heels of IPO announcements from SpaceX, which initially filed with the SEC on April 1, and Anthropic, which announced its filing on June 1. The quick 1-2-3 cadence of these IPOs shows how companies are looking to capitalize on investors’ voracious appetite for artificial intelligence (“AI”) stocks while the market remains robust.

The timing of the IPO announcement looks curious, since the Sam Altman-helmed company immediately walked back plans for an imminent offering in its blog post.

“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,” per the post.

But with the SpaceX IPO on June 12 and Anthropic’s IPO likely coming sooner rather than later, OpenAI may have felt pressure to at least formally announce its intentions, even though it had been a rumored IPO candidate for months. IPO filings from those companies may also add extra heat on OpenAI, given many investors’ concerns about the AI sector’s profitability.

But for now, the OpenAI news keeps investors excited about a highly anticipated IPO and keeps 2026 on track to be the biggest year ever for IPOs by total valuation.

OpenAI’s Valuation Continues to Surge

While details of OpenAI’s exact IPO valuation remain unclear, investors should expect the figure to exceed its most recent valuation of $852 billion.

OpenAI has seen soaring valuations in its funding rounds over the past couple of years:

While the 442% rise in OpenAI’s valuation is exorbitant – especially given the time frame – it’s actually less than the gains that rivals have been putting up over similar periods:

• Anthropic’s valuation rose from $40 billion in November 2024 to $965 billion in May 2026, a gain of more than 2,300%.

• SpaceX has risen from a $210 billion valuation in July 2024 to an IPO valuation of $1.75 trillion, a gain of more than 730%. (It’s important to understand how CEO Elon Musk helped inflate that valuation, though.)

Investors should expect OpenAI to set an even higher valuation as part of the IPO process, and it’s highly likely that first-day trading will send that valuation even higher.

AI Companies Race to Raise Money at Record Levels

With these surging valuations, AI companies and related players are raising unfathomable amounts of money. Investors have their pick of opportunities, from riskier and more direct AI chatbots to “ride the coattails” picks such as real estate, energy, and cooling.

The list of AI trades just keeps expanding:

• AI-data-center plays such as the Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust (BXDC) let investors earn dividends from the build-out of physical infrastructure.

• Chipmaker Cerebras Systems (CBRS) just floated a huge IPO to take advantage of surging valuations and the potential that it could eat into Nvidia’s (NVDA) market share.

• Memory stocks such as Sandisk (SNDK) and Micron Technology (MU) have been absolutely on fire over the last year, as AI data centers eat up all available memory.

• SpaceX is set to become the largest IPO of all time when it goes public.

• Looking for power companies that can ride the AI wave and pay dividends, too? The best energy ETFs hold stocks that are turbocharging their growth through AI.

But at the center of this funding maelstrom are AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

One of the key concerns with OpenAI and Anthropic has been their profitability. Historically, they’ve heavily subsidized users, leading to AI firms running major losses. However, they have recently moved to token-based pricing to help better align their revenue with their actual costs. While the full results of this switch are not yet known, it has significantly raised costs for clients.

Reports in late 2025 and early 2026 suggested that OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX might go public this year. But that seemed like a stretch, given AI’s profitability. Investors usually need to see a “path to profitability” from a company before they’re willing to plunk down significant money. The market is so in love with AI right now that it might be overlooking that sensible precaution.

In any case, SpaceX and Anthropic have at least thrown a scrap to investors who want to see the companies become profitable. Perhaps more important is why these companies are presenting these figures just days and weeks before they conduct their public offering.

For example, SpaceX signed up two major clients that get big money moving through the business. Anthropic will pay SpaceX $1.25 billion per month through May 2029 for access to AI data centers, while Alphabet will pony up $920 million a month for SpaceX’s data centers through June 2029. The deals help stem SpaceX’s $30 billion cash burn over the past four quarters.

At the same time it filed an IPO prospectus with the SEC, Anthropic also revealed that it would turn an operating profit of $559 million in the second quarter. Executives cautioned that it might not remain profitable for the remainder of the year as it invests in growth. Investors should read that as “no chance for profit” in the back half of 2026.

These announcements – again, in the lead-up to highly anticipated IPOs – help investors overlook what might be serious flaws in the business models of AI companies.

The profit situation looks much worse for OpenAI, however. The company generated revenue of $5.7 billion in the first quarter, according to The Information, but posted an operating profit margin of -122%. In other words, for each dollar of sales, the company lost $1.22.

Investors will want to see better news – that is, a path to profit – if and when the company goes public. Given the dour news here and the back-to-back IPO announcements from SpaceX and Anthropic, it certainly doesn’t feel like OpenAI is quite ready to be public.

So, OpenAI’s IPO announcement on the heels of its rivals’ offerings feels like it’s trying to signal that it’s ready for an IPO like its rivals’… All while Altman pumps the brakes on an actual timeline.

With actual financial documents from SpaceX’s IPO and Anthropic’s debut, investors should pay close attention to their economics. As publicly traded firms, AI companies will no longer be able to raise the hundreds of billions they did while private. They’ll need to be profitable on their own in order to survive, and AI’s economics still remain in serious doubt.

Regards,

James Royal, PhD

Editor’s Note: Should you buy OpenAI and Anthropic when they go public? A man who was ranked the #1 Stock Picker in the world says absolutely not. According to Luke Lango, the folks who rush into the biggest IPOs leave a ton of money on the table. But a small group of stocks that are connected to these IPOs could soar when OpenAI and Anthropic go public. He’s identified four stocks that could benefit, including his #1 pick. He shares the details – and a free ticker here.