OpenAI confidentially files IPO paperwork

Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/openai-confidentially-files-ipo-paperwork-212841298.html

OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) on Monday said it filed confidential paperwork for an initial public offering (IPO), setting up one of the most anticipated market debuts in years.

The company said it hasn't decided on timing yet, and that it may take a while "because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company."

In March, OpenAI said had a post money valuation of $852 billion.

The announcement sets up a showdown with rival Anthropic (ANTH.PVT), which filed confidential paperwork for its own IPO last week. Anthropic was last valued at $965 billion.

OpenAI's filing comes just weeks after CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman defeated their former colleague and fellow co-founder Elon Musk in his lawsuit against the duo. Musk accused Altman and Brockman of unjustly enriching themselves by turning the once nonprofit company into a for-profit business.

But a California jury found that Musk filed his suit outside of the statute of limitations. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the US District Court for the Northern District of California accepted the jury's verdict, handing Musk the loss.

In a post on his social media site X, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO indicated that he will appeal the verdict to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, describing the outcome as a "calendar technicality" rather than a ruling on the merits of the case.

OpenAI's win was the last major obstacle standing in the company's way of going public.

The IPO could prove to be a windfall for Microsoft (MSFT), one of OpenAI's largest backers. In October, the companies amended the terms of their existing partnership, allowing the ChatGPT developer to transition to a for-profit.

Under the terms of that deal, Microsoft received 27% of the OpenAI Group PBC, valued at $135 billion at that time, while OpenAI's nonprofit arm received a $130 billion stake in the for-profit entity.

But the relationship between the two companies has soured since Microsoft invested its initial $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019. The Windows maker would reportedly invest upwards of $13 billion in the company, with Microsoft gaining exclusive access to OpenAI's intellectual property and models.

The pair continued to run into trouble with Microsoft's computing capacity, which OpenAI depended on to grow its user base and train and run newer, more powerful AI models.

In April, the companies again amended their agreement, allowing OpenAI to license its IP and models to other cloud businesses.

OpenAI still has a good deal of work ahead. The company is burning through cash as it continues to build out its data center capacity, and Wall Street has repeatedly raised questions about how it will pay for the effort in the long run.

Altman and company are also facing stiff competition from Anthropic and Google (GOOGL, GOOG), which debuted its Gemini 3.5 family of AI models at its recent Google I/O conference.

Now, OpenAI will find out the market's appetite for that kind of risk.