OpenAI IPO:

SpaceX hit a historic valuation at $1.77 trillion during its IPO, but OpenAI, despite being close in its recent valuation, still has to justify a similarly ambitious figure. And since IPOs, while historic, are still highly volatile, it is crucial that you understand the risks, the opportunities, and the company behind it.

OpenAI and Its Business Model

Co-founded as a non-profit research lab in 2015, OpenAI is now best known as the company behind ChatGPT and one of the most prominent companies in the AI industry. The company launched ChatGPT in November 2022, an AI chatbot that has grown to 1 billion monthly users, according to Reuters.

OpenAI has evolved into a for-profit corporation, OpenAI Group PBC and the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation. OpenAI’s API gives developers and businesses access to its AI models for building products, workflows, and internal tools.

Reports suggest OpenAI has adjusted parts of its product strategy around Sora and DALL-E, which may reflect the high compute costs and adoption challenges involved in scaling advanced AI products.

The Business Model

Like other AI-based companies, OpenAI relies primarily on

• Consumer subscriptions
• Developer and API platform
• Business licensing and partnerships
• Enterprise and team-based solutions

These form the core of the company’s business model. For consumer subscriptions, you have ChatGPT Go, ChatGPT Pro, and ChatGPT Plus. Or you can opt for the business and enterprise plans, with the latter supporting custom pricing.

ChatGPT Pro offers advanced features like unlimited image creation and expanded projects, tasks, and GPTs. Subscriptions appear to be one of OpenAI’s major revenue streams, alongside API usage, enterprise products, business licensing, and strategic partnerships.

Through its API and enterprise services, OpenAI serves more than one million business customers. These customers can use OpenAI’s models to power their own products, services, and internal workflows, while also generating revenue for OpenAI.

In terms of partnerships, Microsoft remains a major partner and holds roughly 27% of OpenAI Group after the recapitalization, according to an OpenAI publication in October 2025. Amazon also has a strategic partnership with the company. These partnerships have helped expand OpenAI’s distribution, infrastructure access, and enterprise reach.

OpenAI is also reportedly testing advertising as another potential income source, including tests for eligible Free and Go subscribers in selected markets. The company began testing ads in ChatGPT in February 2026 in the US, with subsequent expansions to other markets.

These revenue streams have contributed to OpenAI’s growth. Earlier this year, in January 2026, the company’s CFO, Sarah Friar, reported that the company’s annualized revenue had crossed $20 billion in 2025. Compared to the $6 billion in 2024, the figures show steady growth as the company edges closer to a potential IPO.

The Ownership Structure – Shares and Voting Rights

In October 2025, the company switched to a dual-entity system:

• OpenAI Foundation is now a non-profit
• OpenAI Group PBC is a for-profit public benefit corporation.
• OpenAI Foundation holds conventional equity in OpenAI Group and continues to control the latter
• All shareholders have a proportionate participation in any increase in value of the OpenAI Group

The OpenAI Foundation holds the sole rights to appoint members of the OpenAI Group’s board of directors. It can also replace the directors at any time.

As of today, the OpenAI Foundation holds a 26% equity stake in the OpenAI Group. The equity was worth $130 billion based on OpenAI Group’s valuation at the closing of the recapitalization. Even so, the foundation still holds a warrant that empowers it to receive additional shares in OpenAI Group.

The OpenAI Valuation History Before the IPO

OpenAI has had over a dozen funding rounds, with the latest $122 billion funding round with “committed capital” at an $852 post-money valuation being a record-breaker for the company. The OpenAI post-money valuation at that point stood at $852 billion, up from a $730 billion pre-money valuation in February 2026.

The March 2026 valuation is also almost a 200% increase from the company’s March 2025 valuation, which stood at $300 billion after raising $40 billion. And some of the big names backing the company include Microsoft (a consistent investor), Amazon, Nvidia, Softbank Group, ARK Investment Management, Sequoia Capital, MGX, and Dragoneer Investment Group.

For now, March 2026 remains the company’s largest funding round at $122 billion, with Softbank Group as the lead investor and up to 28 investors.

How the OpenAI IPO Will Work

Key factors investors typically watch during an IPO include the offer price, valuation, share allocation, first-day trading, lock-up rules, and risk disclosures. These factors help determine how a stock begins its trading life. The listing company and its underwriters usually set the IPO price based on:

• Investor interest in the stock
• The company’s financial standings before the IPO (profitability)

Is OpenAI’s valuation supported by its growth?

With the submission of the confidential S-1, OpenAI opened its financials to regulators (the SEC) for review. CNBC has also reported that the company is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on the IPO process.

While OpenAI’s valuation has grown nearly 10-fold since 2024, the company has yet to turn a profit. Reports suggest that the company may not do so until 2030, against a backdrop of rising AI infrastructure and compute costs.

In 2025, reported figures show that OpenAI generated $13.1 billion in revenue. For context, SpaceX, which reached a $1.77 trillion valuation in its IPO, posted a 2025 revenue of $18.7 billion. However, its losses of $4.9 billion were much lower than OpenAI’s, which may affect how investors compare the two IPO cases.

What the Valuation Metrics Show

It is worth noting that SpaceX and OpenAI are in two different industries, one focused on space exploration and the other on artificial intelligence. As such, investors are likely to focus on different metrics during the IPO process.

OpenAI is in a high-growth industry. However, it also faces strong competition from Anthropic, Google, and other AI providers.

In May 2026, Anthropic announced that it reached a $965 billion post-money valuation after securing $65 billion in Series H funding, higher than OpenAI’s $852 post-money valuation in March 2026. While Anthropic has not announced an IPO date, it has also submitted a draft registration statement, as announced on its official news platform, which further intensifies the competition with OpenAI.

The OpenAI IPO Timeline

OpenAI has submitted the confidential S-1, but has yet to decide on the timing. It has not confirmed an IPO date, exchange, price range, or ticker.

According to the CFO, the company might need more time for the procedural and organizational work needed to go public. Market speculation points to late 2026 or 2027, but again, there is no official confirmation from OpenAI.

As of this writing, there is no set price for OpenAI stock. It is also not yet clear whether a future listing would take place on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. The listing remains speculative at this point, as OpenAI has not confirmed the key IPO details.

Is OpenAI exposed to AI bubble risk?

Sam Altman has acknowledged concerns about AI market exuberance. Compared to SpaceX, OpenAI’s valuation relies on software adoption, compute scale, enterprise usage, and future margins. SpaceX, on the other hand, has hardware, launch contracts, and Starlink revenue.

OpenAI’s use of volume-based billing has allowed it to scale revenue alongside growing demand and customer adoption. Still, current excitement around AI has drawn comparisons with the dot-com era. There is a substantial wave of expectations around AI companies, and investor interest is high, as seen by the scale of AI-related investment, which reached $1.6 trillion in 2024, according to Reuters.

The Mixed Business Model

OpenAI’s mix of consumer, enterprise, API, and partnership revenue helps explain why investors have assigned it a high private market valuation. The company does not rely only on subscriptions from end-users; it also generates revenue through business licensing, API usage, enterprise products, and strategic partnerships.

Investors should also consider the challenges the company has faced. Reports around Sora highlight the cost and adoption challenges involved in scaling advanced AI products. For investors, this underlines one of the key risks facing OpenAI: maintaining product innovation while managing high compute and infrastructure costs.

Reports from Yahoo Finance have also linked Sora-related changes to Disney’s planned $1 billion investment/partnership, which was reportedly abandoned after the Sora shutdown.

Any shift in Sora’s strategy may allow OpenAI to allocate more resources and compute capacity to its core business of providing AI-powered tools and workflows to end-users and business customers.

The Financial Standing

OpenAI’s revenue has continued to grow, reaching a reported $13.1 billion in 2025. However, cash burn may still raise questions for more cautious investors.

Still, revenue momentum remains an important factor for investors to monitor ahead of any potential OpenAI IPO. The company is still reportedly operating at a loss, but even SpaceX, with an over $1 trillion valuation, is still operating at a loss as well.

For many investors, the presence of major backers such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia may support confidence in the company. This backing could be important if OpenAI moves closer to a public listing.

Investor Sentiments

ChatGPT was widely reported as one of the fastest-growing consumer applications to reach 100 million users. And in May 2026, it reached 1 billion active monthly users.

The latest funding rounds have given the company additional capital to expand its AI infrastructure globally across ChatGPT, API access, and enterprise products.

Some of the company’s latest developments include:

• Continued work on improving model safety, reliability, and protection against high-risk activity
• Expansion of Codex into a flagship coding agent

For now, investor sentiment remains divided. Some investors may compare OpenAI with SpaceX as another high-profile private company testing public-market appetite for very large growth valuations. Others remain cautious about the unrealized promises and high costs across the AI industry. Both views make the IPO an important watch point for the technology market.

How To Invest in OpenAI IPO

Unlike SpaceX, OpenAI has yet to declare how many shares would be available for retail investors. Still, reports suggest there is strong institutional interest, supported by existing backing from Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank Group.

OpenAI has made no announcement on retail allocation, institutional allocation, pricing, exchange, or ticker. There is also no confirmation on when OpenAI stock may become available in the public market.

If OpenAI lists, first-day trading could be volatile, as is common with high-profile IPOs. Early moves may either support the proposed price or challenge it. ADSS clients can monitor the latest developments as more details become available.

Conclusion

The OpenAI IPO remains one of the most anticipated potential public offerings in the technology industry. Even though the company has not confirmed the timing or key IPO terms, some investors may compare OpenAI with SpaceX as another high-profile private company approaching public markets.

Market speculation points to late 2026 or 2027 for the IPO. However, OpenAI’s CFO has indicated that the company may need more time to prepare for the procedural, organizational, and regulatory requirements involved in going public.

With ADSS, clients can monitor OpenAI IPO developments and follow global market opportunities across equities, indices, and CFDs, subject to product availability and risk suitability. Open an account or try the demo to learn more about the platform.