OpenAI filed its IPO paperwork and is already having second thoughts about going public
- Sugar Honey
- Jul 7
- 2 min read
OpenAI has filed the paperwork to go public and now cannot decide if it actually wants to.
The company confidentially lodged its S-1 with the SEC on 8 June, the first real step toward a listing that could value it at up to $1 trillion. Weeks later, Reuters and The New York Times reported the whole thing might slide into 2027.
The sticking point is one number. OpenAI's advisers reportedly gave Sam Altman a choice: list later this year at a valuation below $1 trillion, or hold out and wait. Altman has ruled out the discount. The company's last private valuation was $852 billion, set in March when it closed a $122 billion round backed by SoftBank, Amazon and Nvidia. Getting from there to $1 trillion on the public market is a big ask.
It is not hard to see why OpenAI is nervous. SpaceX just completed the biggest IPO in history, opening at $150 a share and briefly touching $225, before sliding back to around $153 within two weeks. If that is what happens to the most anticipated listing of the year, a trillion-dollar AI company with no profits to show for it might reasonably want to wait for calmer waters.
And there are no profits to show for it. OpenAI loses roughly $1.22 for every dollar it earns, posted a net loss of over $38 billion in 2025, and is not expecting to turn a profit until 2029. Its own CFO has reportedly pushed for the later timeline, citing more than $600 billion in infrastructure commitments and the sheer difficulty of meeting public company reporting standards on a tight deadline.
Meanwhile rival Anthropic, last valued at $965 billion, has quietly filed its own confidential IPO paperwork, so OpenAI is not even guaranteed to be first past the post.
None of this makes OpenAI a bad business. It makes it a company that wants the prestige and the cash of a public listing without the quarterly scrutiny that comes with it. Fair enough, but you cannot have a trillion-dollar valuation and cold feet at the same time. Pick one, Sam.
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