OpenAI plans to go public in the fourth quarter, ahead of Anthropic.

OpenAI is accelerating its plan to go public in the fourth quarter of this year. The artificial intelligence giant, valued at $500 billion, is holding informal talks with Wall Street investment banks and expanding its finance team in preparation for its IPO. According to Wall Street reports, insiders reveal that OpenAI has appointed a new Chief Accounting Officer, Ajmere Dale, and a Corporate Finance Officer in charge of investor relations, Cynthia Gaylor. These personnel moves indicate the company is making substantial preparations for going public. OpenAI is reportedly concerned that Anthropic may be the first to go public, as Anthropic has told financial partners it is willing to list before the end of the year. Anthropic has seen a surge in sales fueled by its popular programming tool, Claude Code, and is currently undergoing a round of financing, which may exceed its initial $10 billion goal. The company that goes public first will gain a significant first-mover advantage, attracting a large number of public market investors and retail investors eager to invest in the generative AI wave. Both companies also face competition from Musk's SpaceX, which plans to go public as early as this summer, targeting a financing scale exceeding $1 trillion. Huge Financing Needs Drive the IPO The IPO may help this AI startup bolster market confidence in its financial position. Investors have long questioned how OpenAI will pay for infrastructure and chip deals totaling hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few years. OpenAI is currently conducting a year-long fundraising round that may become the last before the IPO. The company is seeking to raise more than $100 billion, raising its valuation to $830 billion. According to a Wallstreetcn article, Nvidia is in talks to invest up to $30 billion in OpenAI, Microsoft plans to invest less than $10 billion, while Amazon, as a new investor, may invest more than $10 billion, possibly even over $20 billion. However, for OpenAI, successfully going public before the end of the year may face significant challenges. The company is still dealing with typical issues fast-growing startups face, including recent high-level personnel changes and fierce competition from Google in its core consumer business. This has prompted the company to launch a weeks-long "red alert" campaign to improve the quality of ChatGPT. Additionally, OpenAI also faces a lawsuit brought by co-founder Musk, claiming as much as $134 billion in damages. CEO Sam Altman admitted in December on the Big Technology podcast, “Am I excited about being a public company CEO? 0%. Am I excited about OpenAI going public? In some ways, yes; in some ways, I think it will be annoying.” He is expected to delegate some responsibilities to former Instacart CEO Fidji Simo, who currently leads OpenAI’s product and business teams as CEO of the applications business. Anthropic Accelerates Catch-Up Anthropic is also preparing for an IPO. According to insiders, the company has held talks with investment banks interested in assisting with its IPO and has recruited a number of finance personnel, including Andrew Zloto, who heads capital markets, and Kevin Chang, an investor from Blackstone. Both companies currently lose billions of dollars annually to develop new AI models and support existing product operations. According to forecasts shared with investors last year, Anthropic expects to break even for the first time in 2028, two years earlier than OpenAI’s profit timeline, the Wall Street Journal previously reported. With overall IPO activity rebounding, Wall Street expects 2026 to potentially be the biggest year ever for IPOs. OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX are the most-watched tech companies, and smaller companies' IPO activity is also increasing. Risk Warning and Disclaimer Markets have risks, and investment needs caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and does not take into account individual users' specific investment goals, financial circumstances, or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article fit their particular situation. Investing based on this information is at your own risk.