Summary
OpenAI is reportedly preparing to file its confidential IPO paperwork as early as today, May 22, 2026, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley leading the process. The company is targeting a public debut as early as September 2026, with its most recent funding round pegging the valuation at a staggering $852 billion — with some reports suggesting the IPO itself could aim for a $1 trillion market cap.
The filing comes on the heels of OpenAI’s legal victory against co-founder Elon Musk and amid a broader wave of AI companies eyeing public markets. Anthropic is also reportedly preparing its own listing for late 2026, setting the stage for a historic season of AI IPOs.
Source
Business Insider · Forbes · Quartz
Commentary
An $852 billion pre-IPO valuation for a company that only recently became a for-profit entity is extraordinary by any measure. For context, that puts OpenAI in the neighborhood of Berkshire Hathaway and well above most of the traditional tech giants at their IPO moments. The market is effectively pricing in a belief that whoever wins the foundation model race will capture infrastructure-level returns.
The timing is also telling — filing alongside SpaceX’s own IPO creates a fascinating comparison between two companies betting on entirely different frontiers. Whether the public markets will sustain these valuations once the books are actually open is the multi-trillion-dollar question.