OpenAI has confidentially filed for an initial public offering, the company announced Monday, joining its rival Anthropic in a race to Wall Street as AI moves from private markets to public scrutiny.
The ChatGPT maker disclosed the filing in a post on X, saying it had submitted a confidential S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
IPO Filing Details
OpenAI made clear that no final decision on timing has been made. In its post, the company said: "We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company."
The filing comes just one week after Anthropic revealed its own confidential IPO filing. Together, these moves signal that the largest startups in the AI industry are preparing for a new phase where investors demand clear paths to profitability.
OpenAI, founded in 2015, brought artificial intelligence into the mainstream with the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. More than three years later, the AI assistant now sees over 1 billion monthly active users. The company is working to monetize that user growth by introducing advertising on ChatGPT and has invested billions into AI infrastructure and computing resources.
The rivalry between the developers of the large language models that power these tools is intensifying.
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Rivalry Heats Up in Enterprise AI
OpenAI was last valued at more than $850 billion. Anthropic, meanwhile, raised capital at a $965 billion post-money valuation.
In recent months, Anthropic's Claude has gained significant traction in the enterprise market, narrowing what had been OpenAI's perceived lead in deploying large language models at scale across workplace software.
According to a survey from payments startup Ramp, based on a sample of 50,000 businesses using Ramp's technology, Anthropic adoption among businesses rose 3.8% in April to 34.4% of businesses. During the same period, OpenAI adoption fell 2.9% to 32.3%.
OpenAI's confidential filing also comes shortly after the company prevailed against Elon Musk's $150 billion lawsuit.
Whether OpenAI ultimately reaches the public markets before Anthropic remains to be seen. OpenAI had no additional comment beyond its post announcing the filing.