OpenAI Prepares Confidential IPO Filing After SpaceX Filing

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The filing could lead to a public listing as soon as September. The company’s most recent private funding round valued it at $852 billion. Reports indicate the valuation could reach $1 trillion by the time it goes public.

Companies may file confidentially with the SEC and receive feedback before making the S-1 public. The S-1 must be published at least 15 days before the company begins its road show, which usually occurs one to two weeks before the IPO. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told staff this week that filing for an IPO is different from being ready to go public.

The company would not list until it was ready, he said.

The S-1 is expected to detail how much cash OpenAI is burning on training models, serving models on cloud infrastructure, building data centers, and hiring AI talent. It should also indicate whether the burn rate is trending downward and when the company may reach operating profit.

The filing will show OpenAI’s ownership structure. Microsoft owns roughly 27 percent of the public benefit corporation, while the OpenAI Foundation owns 26 percent. Current and former employees and other investors hold the rest. OpenAI generated nearly $6 billion in revenue in the first quarter, according to The Information.

The S-1 is expected to break down revenue by ChatGPT subscriptions, enterprise contracts, API usage, and coding products such as Codex.