NEW YORK, May 21, 2026, 19:08 (EDT)
OpenAI looks set for an IPO in the coming months, with its private-share price and future index weight drawing attention, even though there’s no ticker yet. The company plans to file confidentially for a U.S. IPO in the next few weeks, aiming for a debut as early as September, a person familiar told Reuters. IPOX Vice President Kat Liu said one big legal hurdle has now been cleared, calling it “a major obstacle to an IPO.” Investing.com
OpenAI, valued at $852 billion, scored a legal win Monday as a jury sided against Elon Musk’s lawsuit claiming the firm abandoned its nonprofit roots. Reuters said the outcome removes a potential obstacle to an IPO, which sources told the outlet could happen as soon as September.
U.S. equity markets were closed at the dateline, giving IPO bankers a workable tape. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.55% to a record, while the S&P 500 rose 0.17%. The Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.09%. Nvidia dropped 1.8% after it reported results.
OpenAI doesn’t have an official stock price. Forge Global lists the company as private with no ticker, but shows a “Forge Price” of $732.38 a share as of May 21. Nasdaq Private Market puts OpenAI’s value at $658.94 a share as of May 7 and says there’s no IPO price. The gap highlights these are private market indications, not exchange prices. Forge
Secondary-market trading for private shares is still limited, with deals happening mostly between employees, some early backers, and buyers who qualify. Nasdaq Private Market says it handles sales from past and current employees and investors, while accredited entities and big investors are the ones able to buy. Regular public investors can’t get OpenAI common stock yet—it’s not listed on NYSE or Nasdaq.
SoftBank shares jumped 19.8% Thursday, with traders piling in after The Wall Street Journal said excitement over OpenAI’s IPO plans and SoftBank’s energy and data-center push were fueling the move. Listed proxies also saw action as markets searched for exposure to the story.
Nasdaq will allow some new large-cap listings to join the Nasdaq-100 faster, ranking by market cap on the seventh trading day and giving them a spot after day 15 if they qualify. The move matters for index funds, since a stock like OpenAI could get picked up by funds tracking the benchmark much sooner.
Anthropic is in early discussions to rent servers running Microsoft-designed chips, Reuters said Thursday, in what could give a lift to Microsoft’s chip efforts. The move would also show Microsoft expanding its roster of AI suppliers as its long relationship with OpenAI shifts.
OpenAI is moving to boost its enterprise appeal ahead of a market launch. The company and Dell Technologies rolled out a partnership on May 18 to get Codex into hybrid and on-premises setups for businesses. OpenAI says Codex has over 4 million weekly developers. Dell’s Ihab Tarazi said the partnership could let companies “deploy AI where enterprise data already lives.” OpenAI
But there’s plenty of risk. Reuters Breakingviews, citing The Information, reported OpenAI expects to burn $25 billion this year—spending much more than it takes in. BNP Paribas analysts don’t see free cash flow turning positive before 2031. If growth drops off, Anthropic or Google cut into pricing, or investors turn away from big losses, the IPO could get pushed back or price below private valuations.
The IPO calendar is filling up. Reuters’ Trading Day column said some investors are watching to see if SpaceX or OpenAI will launch big IPOs. The two debuts could influence the rest of the year’s market. OpenAI could be the AI play attracting buyers. It would also test how much risk in loss-making growth the public market wants now.
NYSE’s next holiday is Memorial Day, set for Monday, May 25. For now, there’s no official filing, so trading is driven by anticipation—private pricing, looking at SoftBank-like comps, and guessing how quickly index funds could move in.
