OpenAI's IPO could be the biggest 'dotcom moment' of the AI era. As tech valuations are heating up:
• NVIDIA is currently valued at ~5.7T
• Microsoft is valued at ~3.1T
• OpenAI's private market was valued at ~$852B just a few months ago
1. Current IPO status (hottest news)
- According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on 20/5/2026, OpenAI is preparing to file a confidential IPO with the SEC in the coming days or weeks, possibly as soon as Friday 22/5/2026.
- The company is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to draft the prospectus.
- Public listing target: Around September 2026 or Q4/2026 (to get ahead of competitor Anthropic).
=> OpenAI hasn't officially confirmed, but this is the most concrete step we've seen so far.
2. Valuation and scale
- Current valuation (private): $852 billion post-money after a record fundraising round of $122 billion closed on 31/3/2026.
- IPO target: Could reach up to $1 trillion (according to reports from late 2025). If successful, this could be one of the largest IPOs in history (potentially only behind Saudi Aramco).
3. Challenges and risks
- Business results: In April 2026, WSJ revealed that OpenAI did not meet some internal targets for weekly user numbers (ChatGPT) and revenue for 2025. Growth has slowed due to competition from Google Gemini and Anthropic.
- Huge costs: Spent ~$600 billion on data center/compute in the near future. The company expects to remain heavily in the red until 2030.
- Inside scoop: CEO Sam Altman aims for an early IPO (Q4/2026), while CFO Sarah Friar takes a more cautious stance (possibly pushing it to 2027 to solidify financial control).
- Legal: Elon Musk's lawsuit was recently dismissed, removing a significant hurdle.
4. Current investment opportunities
- Pre-IPO (not yet listed): You can buy OpenAI shares through secondary markets.
- If OpenAI's IPO is successful, we could see a strong wave for AI stocks again; there's a lot of pre-stocks available on various exchanges now, making it much more accessible.
- You can participate in pre-IPO features on Binance Web3.
- This info is provided for your reference; do your own due diligence and make your own decisions!
- What's your take, folks?