OpenAI Is Reportedly Planning a $1 Trillion IPO

OpenAI is reportedly eyeing an initial public offering (IPO) that could value the company at up to $1 trillion — marking one of the biggest IPOs of all time.

According to a Reuters report published on Wednesday, OpenAI is laying the foundation for what could be one of the largest-ever IPOs and is thinking about filing as early as the second half of 2026. In discussions, the company has considered raising $60 billion at the low end, and possibly more, which would value the company at up to $1 trillion.

OpenAI has, however, denied the report. A company spokesperson told Reuters that “an IPO is not our focus, so we could not possibly have set a date.”

“We are building a durable business and advancing our mission so everyone benefits from AGI,” the spokesperson told the outlet. AGI is artificial general intelligence, or technology that can match or surpass human cognitive abilities across any intellectual or practical task.

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The only company to debut on public markets at or above the trillion-dollar mark was Saudi Aramco, the national oil company of Saudi Arabia and the world’s largest oil producer. The company went public in December 2019 with an initial market capitalization of about $1.7 trillion.

All other prominent IPOs launched at much lower valuations, typically well below $200 billion. Meta (then Facebook), for instance, raised $16 billion in its 2012 IPO, which valued the company at $104 billion; Visa’s 2008 IPO valued the company at approximately $36 billion. Both companies have grown tremendously since their early days. Meta is now the seventh-largest company in the world, with a market capitalization of over $1.6 trillion, while Visa is the seventeenth-largest company, with a market cap of about $672.5 billion.

Going public would make it much easier for OpenAI to raise money and pursue bigger deals using its own stock — fueling CEO Sam Altman’s ambitious vision to invest trillions of dollars into building out AI infrastructure, people familiar with the company’s direction told Reuters.

Related: OpenAI Made More Money in the First Six Months of the Year Than It Did in All of 2024

Altman said in a livestream on Tuesday that an IPO was “the most likely path” for OpenAI, given the vast amounts of capital it needs to fund AI infrastructure plans and acquisitions. OpenAI recently acquired Statsig, a platform for software experimentation and feature testing, for about $1.1 billion in August, as well as io Products, a design firm founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive, for $6.5 billion in May.

“I think it’s fair to say that it is the most likely path for us, given the capital needs that we’ll have,” Altman said on the livestream, speaking about an IPO.

OpenAI began as a nonprofit in 2015, aiming to develop safe AI that would benefit society rather than focus on profits. A few years later, OpenAI created a new structure with a for-profit arm, but the nonprofit retained control to make sure its original mission stayed front and center. The nonprofit’s job was to oversee the company’s direction and keep safety as the top priority, unlike typical companies that answer mostly to shareholders.

This week, OpenAI updated its structure again. The nonprofit, now called the OpenAI Foundation, still holds the reins, but this time it owns a 26% stake in the new for-profit OpenAI Group and has a right to acquire more shares if the company meets certain benchmarks. The nonprofit isn’t just guiding OpenAI’s mission; it’s now a major stakeholder in the company’s financial growth.

The news of OpenAI’s possible IPO arrives as the AI boom fuels a surge in the stock market. CNN reports that the S&P 500 has risen by roughly 36% in just over six months, largely due to excitement around AI companies like Nvidia, which became the first company ever to reach a $5 trillion market value on Wednesday. One day earlier, Apple became the third company to achieve a $4 trillion market capitalization, after Nvidia and Microsoft hit the milestone in July.

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OpenAI is reportedly eyeing an initial public offering (IPO) that could value the company at up to $1 trillion — marking one of the biggest IPOs of all time.

According to a Reuters report published on Wednesday, OpenAI is laying the foundation for what could be one of the largest-ever IPOs and is thinking about filing as early as the second half of 2026. In discussions, the company has considered raising $60 billion at the low end, and possibly more, which would value the company at up to $1 trillion.