Sam Altman-led AI startup OpenAI is preparing to confidentially file the draft papers for its initial public offering (IPO) as soon as Friday, CNBC reported, citing people familiar with the matter, adding that this could be one of the largest public market debuts in history.
The ChatGPT-maker, valued at more than $850 billion by private investors, is working with banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to prepare and file the draft papers in the US in the coming days or weeks, the report quoted a source as saying. “As part of normal governance, we regularly evaluate a range of strategic options…Our focus remains on execution,” an OpenAI representative said in a statement to CNBC.
The Economic Times couldn’t independently verify the report.
The Wall Street Journal and Reuters also reported that OpenAI can file for its IPO in the coming days or weeks. The latter reported that the company is aiming to go public as early as September.
Notably, this comes as Elon Musk’s SpaceX filed its long-awaited IPO prospectus on Wednesday, reportedly aiming to raise around $75 billion, which is more than triple the size of the biggest US IPO to date, which was Alibaba’s $22 billion offering in 2014. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are also handling the IPO process of SpaceX. Both companies are reportedly pursuing a listing on Nasdaq.
OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar told CNBC last month that it is "good hygiene" for a company of the ChatGPT-maker’s size to act like a public company.
This comes after an advisory jury earlier this week said that Musk waited too long to sue OpenAI, Altman and Greg Brockman, alleging they went back on their vow to keep the company a nonprofit. Musk called the decision a “calendar technicality” in a post on his social network X.
"Resolving that legal overhang removed a major obstacle to an IPO and likely gave OpenAI the confidence to accelerate its timeline," Reuters quoted IPOX Vice President Kat Liu as saying. The analyst added that timing its filing close to SpaceX's IPO takes some of the scrutiny off of OpenAI and allows the company to tell its own story. "Simultaneous filings also force portfolio managers to evaluate both companies side by side."
ChatGPT serves more than 900 million weekly active users, OpenAI said earlier this year, adding that it had surpassed 50 million consumer subscribers. The company raised $122 billion earlier this year, likely marking Silicon Valley's largest-ever funding round.
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