San Francisco, June 8, 2026, 15:02 PDT
- OpenAI has submitted a confidential draft S-1 to the SEC, kicking off the process for a potential public listing.
- Just days after Anthropic filed confidentially for an IPO, the competition among leading AI labs for public funds is heating up.
- OpenAI’s detailed financials aren’t available to investors yet, since the filing hasn’t gone public. Key issues like revenue quality, cash burn, and compute costs are still unclear.
OpenAI has filed a confidential draft S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a move bringing the ChatGPT developer closer to a possible public debut. The company said it’s still undecided on its IPO timing.
The filing is drawing attention as the AI market shifts from private deals to public markets. Companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX are on the path to IPOs, and they want investors to put up cash for big needs like chips, data centers and power, even as profits remain unproven.
An S-1 is the primary IPO filing, detailing a company’s business, financials and risks. If a company files confidentially, the SEC reviews the draft privately. Companies still have to make the document and prior drafts public at least 15 days before any roadshow, or before the planned effective date if there isn’t a roadshow.
OpenAI said, “We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while,” noting some work could be simpler while private. The company also said the notice isn’t an offer to sell securities. OpenAI
OpenAI’s last big round set a benchmark. The company announced March 31 it closed $122 billion in committed capital on an $852 billion post-money valuation, counting Amazon, Nvidia, SoftBank, and Microsoft among its backers. OpenAI said it brings in $2 billion a month and has over 900 million weekly ChatGPT users.
That kind of scale works both ways. OpenAI has the strong consumer profile and a sizable enterprise arm, but listing would show what it really spends on its models, revealing costs for “compute”—the chips and data centers needed to train and power AI. Bloomberg said OpenAI is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on a possible IPO as early as this fall. The company also plans around $600 billion in AI infrastructure spending by 2030. Hindustan Times
Anthropic, which makes the Claude chatbot, said June 1 it has confidentially filed a draft S-1 with the SEC. The company said any IPO will depend on the market and other factors. The competition is direct.
OpenAI is still ahead in consumer chatbots, but failed to hit some of its own revenue and user-growth goals, The Wall Street Journal reported. Anthropic is making progress with business clients. Details about OpenAI’s finances won’t be available until closer to a possible IPO, as the company filed confidentially, according to the Journal.
OpenAI says its push for more cash fits into a bigger game plan. On Monday, CEO Sam Altman and chief scientist Jakub Pachocki said in a post that OpenAI is “entering the third phase,” with the focus now on making advanced AI more common and cheaper to use. OpenAI
Public markets may not give AI the same high marks as private investors. If OpenAI’s future S-1 filing points to thinner margins, slower growth, or bigger liabilities than people hope, the company might push back the IPO, cut the offering, or settle for a lower price tag. That would hit private AI valuations, with Anthropic and SpaceX watching investor appetite too.
OpenAI is keeping its options open for now. Wall Street still hasn’t gotten a look at the numbers. The real test is ahead, when the confidential filing goes public and the AI boom has to work off a prospectus instead of just a story.
