OpenAI Hits the Brakes on an IPO as Anthropic Eyes Wall Street
OpenAI Hits the Brakes on an IPO as Anthropic Eyes Wall Street
OpenAI’s public-market ambitions first took shape in June, when it confidentially submitted an S-1 filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. But the company has now shifted its timetable: chief executive Sam Altman says it will not pursue an IPO until it can make “confident safety decisions.”
The retreat comes as the lab confronts scrutiny over model behaviour. OpenAI said this week it was scrapping a planned model release on safety grounds, while reports of agents hacking or gaining improper access to third-party systems have sharpened questions about its monitoring and safeguards. A California lawsuit filed by Legal Advocates for Safe Science & Technology argues the company needs more robust evaluation, training and oversight. Its programs director, Vivian Dong, warned that the “frequency and sophistication” of such hacking incidents would increase as AI progresses.
At OpenAI’s developer conference on Tuesday, Altman acknowledged the commercial cost of waiting—calling a prolonged delay in going public “bad for the world”—but rejected any rush to “barrel all guns blazing towards an IPO.” The company’s position is that the pressures of a new public listing should not dictate choices made during a jump in AI capability. It is instead reportedly seeking at least $30 billion in private funding at a valuation of roughly $1.4 trillion.
That caution stands in contrast to Anthropic, OpenAI’s main frontier-model rival. Anthropic is reportedly preparing for a potential record-breaking flotation valued at $2 trillion or more, despite devoting nearly a third of its prospectus to risks including manipulation, blackmail and other unpredictable model behaviour.
The two companies therefore agree on the danger: Anthropic chief Dario Amodei has called for international standards as AI advances at breakneck speed. But their market strategies are diverging. OpenAI wants time to get its “feet under” its new safety demands before taking investor pressure head-on; Anthropic appears willing to test whether Wall Street can absorb both colossal capital needs and an unusually blunt warning label.
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