OpenAI confidentially submitted a draft S-1 registration statement to the SEC on June 8, one week after rival Anthropic and days before SpaceX's record listing. The company, last valued at $852 billion, took the unusual step of announcing the secret filing itself: "We expect it to leak so we're just announcing it."
According to a source cited by CNBC, OpenAI is targeting a September 2026 debut at a valuation of $730-850 billion, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as underwriters. The company says timing is still undecided, since some plans are "likely easier as a private company." CFO Sarah Friar noted the current valuation would already place OpenAI among the top 15 companies in the S&P 500.
The driver is cash: OpenAI projects an $85 billion burn in 2028 — including roughly $122 billion in computing costs that year — and does not expect to be cash-flow positive for at least four more years, even as ChatGPT reaches 900 million weekly active users.