SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI has confidentially filed paperwork with U.S. regulators for an initial public offering, the artificial intelligence company said on Monday, following a similar move by rival Anthropic.
The ChatGPT maker submitted a draft registration statement, known as an S-1, to the Securities and Exchange Commission on a confidential basis, OpenAI said in a brief statement on its website.
"We recently submitted a confidential S-1," the company said. "We expect it to leak so we’re just announcing it. We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company. But it’s a complicated set of tradeoffs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best."
The filing comes about a week after Anthropic, another leading AI startup, took the same step toward a potential public listing.
OpenAI, based in San Francisco and best known for developing ChatGPT, did not disclose financial details, the size of any potential offering or a target valuation in its announcement. The company last raised funds at a post-money valuation of about $852 billion, according to reports citing its March fundraising.
A confidential filing allows companies to submit financial information to regulators for review without immediate public disclosure. It is a common step in the IPO process that gives firms time to refine their plans based on feedback before a full public filing.
The move places OpenAI among several major AI-related companies preparing for public debuts. Details on the exact timeline for OpenAI’s potential listing remain unclear. The company has not specified when it might complete the IPO process.
OpenAI has grown rapidly since launching ChatGPT in late 2022, attracting significant investment from Microsoft and others. Its valuation has soared amid high demand for generative AI technologies, though the company has also faced scrutiny over costs, competition and governance issues.
Anthropic, the developer of the Claude AI model and backed by companies including Google and Amazon, confidentially filed for its own IPO around June 1.
Neither company has provided public financial figures in connection with the filings. OpenAI has previously reported substantial revenue growth alongside high research and infrastructure expenses.
The SEC review process for confidential filings typically takes weeks or months before any public S-1 is released. OpenAI has not commented on potential underwriters or listing exchange.
As of Monday, no further details on the status of the filing had been released by the company or regulators.
