OpenAI Confidentially Files for Initial Public Offering OpenAI’s quiet step toward the stock market is accelerating a broader race—not just to build the most powerful AI models, but to capture Wall Street capital before rivals do.

On June 1, rival Anthropic confidentially filed IPO paperwork, briefly cementing its status as the world’s most valuable startup with a roughly $965 billion valuation, edging past OpenAI’s last reported $852 billion post‑money value. Within a week, OpenAI moved to match that milestone.

In a late‑night blog post on June 8, OpenAI disclosed that it had “recently submitted a confidential S‑1” to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, explaining that it expected the news to leak and had “not decided on timing yet” for any public offering. Axios reported that the draft IPO paperwork is meant to “give itself the option to tap public markets,” even as the company insists its primary focus remains on building AI products.

Tech and financial media quickly framed the move as the latest turn in a year‑long IPO race between OpenAI and Anthropic, with both seeking “tens of billions of dollars” from public investors. The Verge described OpenAI’s filing as “one of the most highly anticipated public offerings in history,” noting that Anthropic’s earlier S‑1 submission set the competitive tone.

Inside OpenAI, however, the path is not friction‑free. Reports cite concerns from CFO Sarah Friar over missed revenue and user‑growth targets and whether the company can fund enormous compute commitments, initially touted at $1.4 trillion and later scaled back to $600 billion by 2030.

The filing also lands amid scrutiny of CEO Sam Altman’s broader empire. On the same day OpenAI’s IPO step became public, his identity‑verification startup Tools for Humanity—best known for the Worldcoin iris‑scanning project—was reported to be conducting layoffs as it “struggles to create revenue” and faces international regulatory backlash over biometric data collection.

With SpaceX also expected to list imminently, analysts say the AI race has moved “beyond model advancements” to a contest over who can reach public markets first and secure scarce investor capital.

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