OpenAI has bought optionality on a stockmarket listing, filing confidential registration papers with the US Securities and Exchange Commission while telling investors it has not fixed a timetable for going public. The company said the confidential submission gives it the option to list on US markets at some point but declined to disclose offering size, terms or timing. OpenAI added it made the filing public in advance because it expected the information "to leak" and warned that going public "may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company." The move follows Anthropic's confidential filing a week earlier and formalises a route to public capital that until now relied on private rounds and secondary trades.

OpenAI's move to file registration paperwork contrasts with its insistence that there's no set timetable for a listing, and it comes as rival Anthropic has already taken the same procedural step.

What the filing changes

By lodging confidential registration documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission OpenAI secured the regulatory pathway that would allow it to sell shares to the public once the SEC review and suitable market conditions are complete. Before the filing public investors had no formal route to buy OpenAI stock; after the filing the company has the flexibility to proceed more quickly if executives judge that to be in shareholders' interests.

OpenAI described the filing in a compact statement, saying it gave the company the option to list on US markets at some point in the future and that it disclosed the submission proactively because it expected "it to leak." The company stressed the timetable remains undecided and told investors that going public "may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company."

The confidential nature of the SEC filing means OpenAI didn't reveal the offering size, the terms, or a target date. Reuters reported that the company hasn't decided a timeline and that prior coverage suggested OpenAI might target a valuation up to $1 trillion and could consider a listing as soon as September, though OpenAI emphasised the timing is undecided.

How the rivals compare

OpenAI and Anthropic are approaching a head-to-head transition to public ownership from different private valuations and business metrics. Private investor valuations most recently placed OpenAI at $852 billion and Anthropic at $965 billion, figures that frame a rare contest for public-market capital among privately held AI leaders.

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The two companies also face different operating profiles. OpenAI's compute costs are reported to run exceptionally high, with outside estimates cited at more than $100 billion per year. At the same time Reuters has published figures from the company showing rapid revenue growth, including a report that ChatGPT reached more than 900 million weekly active users and over 50 million consumer subscribers. Reuters also reported that OpenAI said it was generating roughly $2 billion in monthly revenue and growing faster than several older internet-era leaders.

Anthropic, by contrast, has told investors it expects to be profitable soon, a claim that investors will weigh against differing cost structures and growth profiles as the two firms contemplate market debuts. Both firms' confidential filings change the choices available to private backers, who previously relied on secondary markets and private rounds to trade stakes.

SpaceX has also signalled ambitions to join public markets and is pursuing a Nasdaq listing aimed at a multitrillion-dollar valuation. That firm now sits alongside OpenAI and Anthropic as a member of a very small group of technology companies preparing market debuts that could reshape investor interest in the AI sector.

OpenAI's decision follows a renegotiation of its partnership with Microsoft and an expansion of commercial arrangements with other cloud providers and customers. Reuters and OpenAI have said those moves broaden the company's options for partnerships and revenue while it finalises a path to public markets.

The practical effect of the confidential filing is procedural but consequential: it converts an informal possibility into a prepared route to the public markets. The SEC review that follows will determine whether and when OpenAI can proceed to a public offering and when it must disclose offering size and timing. Until that review completes, the company retains flexibility to balance private funding against the demands and disclosure obligations of life as a public company.

Investors will also be watching whether OpenAI's revenue trajectory and user metrics can sustain an IPO valuation in the same league as the largest technology listings. The company has signalled strong growth while cautioning that the timing of any public offering is undecided and may be delayed by internal priorities better advanced while private.

For now, the filing is a defensive and optional manoeuvre. It preserves the chance to move rapidly when conditions align, and it formalises a choice that until now had been handled through private rounds and strategic partnerships. That optionality is central to why OpenAI said it filed confidentially and made the filing public in advance of any market announcement.

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The immediate next step is the SEC review of OpenAI's confidential registration, which will decide whether the process can proceed and when the company must disclose offering size and terms. Originally reported by the BBC.

This article was created with AI assistance.