OpenAI Leaves Door Open to an IPO as Early as 2027
The company confidentially submitted a draft S-1 on June 8, 2026, but has not set an offering timetable or date for any public filing.
OpenAI has left open the possibility of an initial public offering as early as 2027 after ruling out a 2026 listing, giving investors a potential timeframe without committing the company to a sale of shares.
The company said June 8, 2026, that it had confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing does not commit OpenAI to an offering or establish when it would go public.
OpenAI said it had not decided on timing and wanted to preserve the option of remaining private while pursuing objectives that may be easier to accomplish outside the public markets.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman later ruled out a listing in 2026. In comments published Sept. 12, he said, “I would say not 2026, yeah. We got a lot of stuff to do.” Altman also said, “Right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public.”
Those comments make 2027 the earliest timeframe supported by OpenAI’s public statements, not a confirmed IPO plan or date. OpenAI has not disclosed the date of any public S-1 filing or a target valuation for a potential offering.
The company announced $110 billion in new investment on Feb. 27, 2026, at a $730 billion pre-money valuation. The financing included $30 billion from SoftBank, $30 billion from NVIDIA and $50 billion from Amazon.
OpenAI said at the time that ChatGPT had more than 900 million weekly active users, more than 50 million consumer subscribers and more than 9 million paying business users relying on the service for work.
OpenAI has tied its growth strategy to access to computing capacity, capital and distribution, with the February announcement linking its expansion to partnerships with Amazon, NVIDIA and SoftBank.
The confidential filing gives OpenAI flexibility to pursue a public listing while keeping its private-company option open. Altman has also said safety and alignment work could be handled more effectively while OpenAI remains private.
The potential listing follows broader market interest in when major artificial-intelligence companies may enter public markets. Earlier coverage of the IPO announcement race between OpenAI and Anthropic noted that neither company had committed to a listing date.
