OpenAI is secretly moving towards a stock market listing, with a potential listing in the fall of 2026.

OpenAI is secretly moving towards a stock market listing, with a potential listing in the fall of 2026.

 

OpenAI , the developer of the ChatGPT application, has taken a new step towards the financial markets, after announcing that it has submitted a confidential draft of its Initial Public Offering (IPO) form (S-1) to US regulators, in preparation for listing its shares on the stock exchange in the coming period.

Submitting the S-1 form is the first official step taken by companies wishing to go public. The document includes detailed information about the business, financial results and risks, but its contents remain confidential at this stage and are not disclosed to investors until some time before the offering date.

The company said in a brief statement that the listing process is still in its early stages, noting that the final offering date has not yet been determined, despite growing expectations in the markets that trading of the stock could begin next September if preparations go according to plan.

OpenAI’s move comes just a week after its competitor Anthropic announced a similar confidential listing application, signaling that the competition among the world’s largest AI companies is moving beyond developing models and applications to the capital markets as well. Media reports in May revealed that OpenAI had already begun working with several major investment banks to prepare its prospectus, making the company’s latest announcement a formal confirmation of widely circulated investor expectations.

Meanwhile, SpaceX is preparing to join the public markets with a valuation approaching $1.75 trillion, with Anthropic expected to follow in the coming weeks, making 2026 one of the busiest years for mega listings in the history of financial markets.

OpenAI is also seeking to implement a secondary share sale (Tender Offer), which would allow employees and some existing shareholders to sell a portion of their own shares before the official listing, a mechanism common among fast-growing tech companies to provide liquidity for investors and employees.

The company’s last funding round gave it a valuation of over $852 billion post-investment, a figure currently seen as a starting point for estimating the company’s potential market value when it goes public.

Observers believe that global financial markets are entering a new phase of mega-initiatives linked to the artificial intelligence and advanced technology sector, with companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX preparing to go public within a short period. These listings are expected to attract exceptional attention from investors and financial institutions worldwide, given the record-breaking valuations these companies are aiming for, as well as their pivotal role in shaping the digital and technological economy in the coming decades. As these offerings approach the public market, Wall Street is poised to witness one of the largest and most impactful IPO waves in its recent history.