OpenAI, the San Francisco company behind ChatGPT, is preparing to file confidentially for an initial public offering within weeks, in what would rank as one of the largest flotations the artificial intelligence sector has ever seen and a defining moment in the global technology race.

According to two people familiar with the matter, the ChatGPT maker is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on the paperwork and is monitoring market conditions closely before pulling the trigger. The timing remains fluid, but a filing in the coming weeks could pave the way for a listing as early as September. The news, first reported by the Wall Street Journal and confirmed by Bloomberg, sent fresh ripples through a market already braced for a bumper year of technology debuts.

“As part of normal governance, we regularly evaluate a range of strategic options,” an OpenAI spokesperson said. “Our focus remains on execution.”

The most-watched listing in a generation

Few companies have generated as much speculation among bankers, fund managers and policymakers. OpenAI was valued at $730 billion in its most recent private funding round earlier this year, with secondary market trades reportedly pushing the implied valuation closer to $850 billion. A successful listing would dwarf the floats of Facebook, Alibaba and Saudi Aramco in dollar terms and crystallise the AI boom that ChatGPT triggered when it launched in late 2022.

It would also stand as a bellwether for the broader appetite for AI stocks at a moment when revenue multiples across the sector have stretched far beyond historical norms. CNBC reported separately that the company is targeting a public debut in the autumn, with the filing potentially landing within days.

For UK-based investors, founders and SME advisers, the proposed listing carries particular resonance. OpenAI has spent the past 12 months deepening its British footprint, recently signing a long lease on a King’s Cross headquarters as part of plans to more than double its UK workforce. The company has also brought former chancellor George Osborne on board to lead its international Stargate infrastructure programme.

A bumper year for tech mega-floats

OpenAI is not the only Silicon Valley heavyweight queueing up for the public markets. SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite group which has valued itself at more than $1 trillion in recent secondary trades, is widely expected to begin trading as soon as next month. Anthropic, OpenAI’s closest rival in the frontier-model race, has also taken preparatory steps towards a listing.

That trio alone could absorb a meaningful chunk of global IPO capacity in 2026, sucking liquidity away from smaller deals and intensifying competition between New York, London and Hong Kong for blue-chip listings. The implications for the City have not gone unnoticed: Zopa chief executive Jaidev Janardana recently argued that London’s IPO market could thrive as US political instability mounts, with British exchanges working hard to retain growth-stage technology companies.

Musk hurdle cleared, capacity questions remain

OpenAI’s push towards the public markets received a significant boost on Monday, when a federal judge and jury rejected a lawsuit brought by Mr Musk, an OpenAI co-founder turned vocal critic, that had sought to unwind the for-profit structure adopted by the company last year. Had the action succeeded, it would almost certainly have derailed any near-term flotation. With that legal cloud lifted, advisers can press ahead with due diligence and underwriting work.

The company will still need to convince public investors that it can sustain the breakneck infrastructure spending behind frontier models. OpenAI recently inked a $38 billion compute deal with Amazon, on top of multibillion-dollar commitments to AMD and Oracle, raising fresh questions about cash burn, energy availability and the long path to profitability.

What it means for SMEs

For Britain’s small and mid-sized businesses, the significance of an OpenAI IPO extends beyond the share-price headlines. A public OpenAI would be obliged to disclose far more about its commercial pipeline, pricing strategy, enterprise customer base and roadmap than is currently visible — information that procurement teams, technology buyers and competing UK AI start-ups can use to sharpen their own planning. It is also likely to embolden a wave of follow-on listings from smaller AI vendors keen to ride OpenAI’s slipstream, potentially creating new exit routes for British founders and venture capital backers

If the filing arrives on the timetable bankers are now sketching out, the autumn could mark the moment artificial intelligence formally graduated from private-market darling to mainstream public-market asset class. For SME owners weighing their own technology investments, the message is straightforward: the AI economy is about to become a great deal more transparent — and a great deal harder to ignore.

Read more:
OpenAIi lines up confidential IPO filing as race for AI listings accelerates