OpenAI Files Confidentially for IPO as AI Companies Rush to Wall St.
The company hopes to raise billions in a highly anticipated public offering that could unlock a new generation of tech industry wealth.
The company hopes to raise billions in a highly anticipated public offering that could unlock a new generation of tech industry wealth.
OpenAI, which started the artificial intelligence boom with its ChatGPT chatbot, filed confidentially on Monday for an initial public offering, laying the groundwork for what could be one of the largest public offerings to hit Wall Street.
The company has not yet decided when it will go public, it said in a statement to The New York Times.
“It may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company,” the statement said. “But it’s a complicated set of trade-offs, and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best.”
An OpenAI public offering would join what is expected to be a wave of blockbuster I.P.O.s, with Elon Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, and the A.I. start-up Anthropic also preparing to go public this year.
OpenAI, which is based in San Francisco, was valued at $730 billion in private markets after a funding round this year. That does not include its latest investment round, which totaled $122 billion.
The company is a long way from being profitable, even after raising more than $180 billion since it was started in 2015. It pulled in more than $13 billion in revenue last year, but expects to spend $115 billion over the next four years. Revenue is rising from the sale of ads inside the consumer version of ChatGPT and the sale of various A.I. technologies to businesses and independent software developers.
