The topic OpenAI IPO will happen ASAP, say insiders is drawing steady attention: readers, analysts, and industry watchers are all tracking how the story may unfold in the days ahead.
This is taking place in a fast-moving context — product cycles, platform shifts, and competitive moves can reshape the outlook quickly, so the details below are worth a careful read.
What follows is a clear walkthrough of the main facts and angles you need to make sense of the news.
Sam Altman’s OpenAI may be losing money to the tune of $1 billion a month. It may be struggling to convert more than 5% of ChatGPT users to paid customers. And it may be losing ground to rivals like Anthropic (makers of the highly-teased Claude Mythos) and Google (makers of the freshly updated Gemini).
But OpenAI investors still believe they can cash in — perhaps to the tune of $1 trillion — if the company launches on the stock market soon.
And now that Elon Musk’s lawsuit (which claimed OpenAI defrauded him during its conversion to a for-profit company) has been dismissed at trial on a technicality, the launch window appears to be opening.
Sources at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley told reporters at the Wall Street Journal that the OpenAI IPO would be filed with regulators as early as this Friday. And though plans remain “fluid,” the Journal warned, that would mean you’ll likely see OpenAI shares debut on the NYSE as soon as September.
Musk, meanwhile, says he plans to appeal the trial verdict; a bonanza IPO for a company still nominally governed by a nonprofit board may help bolster his case. Ironically, Musk is currently distracted by his own pending IPO bonanza; SpaceX, fresh off its acquisition of xAI, is also reportedly ready to file paperwork with regulators this week.
So, Altman, increasingly Musk’s AI nemesis, may be taking a little of his rival’s thunder here. But exactly how much Altman will take home from an OpenAI IPO remains a mystery.
The CEO confirmed in the courtroom what has been an open secret for some time — that Altman does have investments in the company, via a fund at the Silicon Valley incubator he used to run, YCombinator.
In 2023, Altman told the U.S. Senate he had no financial stake in the company, per The Atlantic. He’s now the target of a probe led by GOP members of the House Oversight Committee, which is looking into OpenAI’s habit of making deals with other companies Altman has investments in.
In other words, Altman’s long-documented reputation for telling people what they want to hear may be catching up with him, while the wheels are wobbling a bit on the OpenAI bandwagon. And yet, at the same time, a payday of unknown magnitude approaches.
Topics
Artificial Intelligence
Politics
OpenAI
Chris is a veteran tech, entertainment and culture journalist, author of ‘How Star Wars Conquered the Universe,’ and co-host of the Doctor Who podcast ‘Pull to Open.’ Hailing from the U.K., Chris got his start as a sub editor on national newspapers. He moved to the U.S. in 1996, and became senior news writer for Time.com a year later. In 2000, he was named San Francisco bureau chief for Time magazine. He has served as senior editor for Business 2.0, and West Coast editor for Fortune Small Business and Fast Company. Chris is a graduate of Merton College, Oxford and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a long-time volunteer at 826 Valencia, the nationwide after-school program co-founded by author Dave Eggers. His book on the history of Star Wars is an international bestseller and has been translated into 11 languages.