Sam Altman told OpenAI employees in a Slack message this week that he expects the company to go public "within the next year," The Information reported on Wednesday, following OpenAI's confidential IPO filing with the SEC on Monday.
"Many things could cause it to be sooner or later in that range, but filing now gives us optionality if we want to go sooner," Altman wrote, according to the report. The message tempered expectations that OpenAI is rushing to beat rival Anthropic to market after Anthropic filed its own confidential S-1 on June 1.
OpenAI announced its confidential filing in a blunt blog post, acknowledging it expected the news to leak. "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 wrote.
"But it's a complicated set of tradeoffs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best."
Altman introduced an unusual caveat: rapid progress in recursive self-improvement (RSI), where AI can create new AI autonomously, could actually delay the IPO. "The faster the potential RSI takeoff looks like it could be, the more it could be advantageous to delay an IPO," he told staff, noting that technology and the world "may change in surprising ways" during such a transition. The CEO also told employees OpenAI is preparing a tender offer "very soon" at the current share price of $687.69, according to the report.
OpenAI's last funding round in March valued the company at $852 billion, and Reuters has reported the AI giant is targeting a valuation of up to $1 trillion in its stock market debut, which could come as early as September. Prediction markets now price a December 2026 IPO at 76% probability.
The filing caps a tumultuous period for OpenAI. The company prevailed in court last month after Elon Musk's lawsuit alleging the company illegally converted from nonprofit to for-profit was dismissed on statute of limitations grounds.
OpenAI also faces over a dozen lawsuits claiming ChatGPT has exacerbated mental health crises and provoked violent acts, including a recent case from Florida.
Despite missing internal targets for new users and revenue, OpenAI projects $20 billion in annualized revenue with 900 million weekly active users. The company secured $122 billion in March, the largest funding round in Silicon Valley history, but expects to burn $85 billion in 2028 even after doubling sales from the prior year, per The Wall Street Journal.
