OpenAI files for initial public offering as AI firms race to go public

OpenAI confirmed Monday that it has filed paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to go public, becoming the latest artificial intelligence firm to move towards an initial public offering (IPO).

"We recently submitted a confidential S-1. We expect it to leak so we’re just announcing it. 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 company said on the US social media platform X.

"But it’s a complicated set of tradeoffs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best," it added.

Additional details were not immediately available.

Rival AI firm Anthropic said June 1 that it had filed confidential paperwork to go public.

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI (owner of ChatGPT), said after Anthropic's IPO announcement that the rivalry in the AI field is not about reaching Wall Street.

"I think there is a race to deliver the best technology, build the best business, but you know, going public is a financing event, and I don't think that's one that we're focused on the timing of," he said.