SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2026, 01:00 PDT
Anthropic said Monday it has filed a confidential draft registration for an IPO, turning up the heat on OpenAI in the race to a Wall Street debut. Anthropic hasn’t decided on the number of shares or price yet, but the move lets it go public once the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wraps its review.
OpenAI was seen as a likely contender among the first frontier AI companies to test public-market appetite. But Reuters said Anthropic’s confidential IPO filing puts it ahead of OpenAI, with investors now looking at whether private AI valuations nearing $1 trillion hold up to audited numbers.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman dismissed the idea of a race following Anthropic’s filing. “Going public is a financing event,” Altman told CNBC’s David Faber, saying OpenAI isn’t watching IPO timing. He also said the AI market wouldn’t be “winner-takes-all” and expects customers to pick from several providers. Business Insider
OpenAI is still headed that way. Reuters said on May 20 the ChatGPT company was getting set to confidentially file for a U.S. IPO in the next few weeks and was working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on a draft prospectus. A public debut might come as soon as September. The IPO could value OpenAI at up to $1 trillion, according to Reuters and people familiar with the plans.
OpenAI’s private funding is big by industry standards. The company said in March it finished a round with $122 billion committed and a post-money valuation of $852 billion, meaning that’s what OpenAI is worth after the new capital.
OpenAI’s setup is key for any IPO. The company says its for-profit operation is called OpenAI Group PBC, a public benefit corporation. That means it has to factor in its mission and stakeholders beyond just shareholders. Control stays with the OpenAI Foundation. Microsoft owns about 27% of OpenAI Group and the foundation has 26%, according to OpenAI.
Analysts say Anthropic’s confidential IPO filing could help or hurt OpenAI. Kat Liu at IPOX said Anthropic went ahead while the “window remains favorable.” PitchBook’s Harrison Rolfes pointed out Anthropic now has the “narrative advantage” but also faces early “disclosure risk.” D.A. Davidson’s Gil Luria said being first may be a “great advantage” with SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic all looking for funds. Reuters
IPO watchers could get their comparison soon. Patrick Corrigan, a Notre Dame law professor focused on IPOs, told the Associated Press that a lot of people had been “expecting OpenAI to go first.” Dan Ives at Wedbush Securities described the rush to list as an “opening of the floodgates.” IDC’s Tim Law said it would be a “healthy thing” for the sector once these firms must report quarterly and show tech spending. AP News
OpenAI is not looking at an IPO just for institutions. CFO Sarah Friar told CNBC in April the company wants to save part of the IPO shares for retail buyers. She pointed to “really strong demand” from individual investors in the last private round. Friar said it’s “good hygiene” for a company of OpenAI’s size to move and look more like a public company. Reuters
Microsoft is still central to the picture. Back in April, Reuters said Microsoft would keep its top spot as OpenAI’s main cloud partner and have a license for the startup’s intellectual property through 2032. OpenAI also agreed to spend at least $250 billion on Azure by 2032. Luria called the updated Microsoft agreement “essential” to OpenAI’s plans to attract business clients, since it lets OpenAI better pursue customers who use Amazon and Google for cloud. Reuters
The listing still faces risks, and shares could price under forecasts. Public investors might be tougher than OpenAI’s private backers about computing costs, governance, losses, and where the company is betting on products. Reuters Breakingviews flagged higher chip bills, Anthropic stepping up competition, a $6.5 billion hardware agreement and more investor questioning on major infrastructure spending as hurdles for the IPO story.
IPOs are trading as usual, with no holiday shutdown. June 2 isn’t a holiday on the NYSE’s 2026 schedule, so markets will open at 9:30 a.m. and close at 4:00 p.m. ET. Juneteenth on June 19 is the next full day off for the U.S. exchanges.
OpenAI investors still don’t have that formal marker—a filing, then a prospectus with revenue, losses, ownership, risk. Anthropic, for now, is the one to set a first date on the AI IPO timeline.
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