SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company that has spent the last three years either saving or ending civilization depending on who you ask, is reportedly taking early steps toward a public stock market listing, potentially as soon as late 2026 — a move that would give ordinary investors the opportunity to own a small piece of the thing keeping them up at night.
The company, which crossed $25 billion in annualized revenue this year and is currently valued at somewhere between “a lot” and “a number that requires scientific notation,” has held preliminary discussions with investment banks about a potential IPO, according to sources familiar with the matter who described themselves as “cautiously optimistic” and “extremely busy.”
The announcement was met with immediate enthusiasm on Wall Street, where analysts issued a flurry of research notes with titles including “BUY: The Future Is Now,” “STRONG BUY: The Future Was Yesterday,” and one outlier note titled “HOLD: What Even Is A Share Of Artificial General Intelligence.”
“We see strong upside potential driven by revenue growth, platform expansion, and the fact that if this thing becomes sentient, you’d really rather own it than not.”
— Anonymous investment bank analyst, in a note distributed to institutional clients
Rival Anthropic, approaching $19 billion in annualized revenue, declined to comment on whether it was also considering a public listing, though its communications team did send a very thoughtful and well-structured email declining to comment, which analysts interpreted as bullish.
For retail investors, the prospect of buying OpenAI stock raises complex questions: Is it wise to financially back the technology most likely to automate your own job? Does owning shares constitute informed consent to the AI transition? And crucially — if the AI eventually manages the company’s finances, does it vote its own shares?
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman struck an upbeat tone at a recent industry event, describing the IPO as “a natural next step” and the company’s mission as “ensuring artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity — starting, obviously, with our early shareholders.”
The SEC has reportedly formed a new task force to evaluate AI company listings, specifically focused on the disclosure question of what exactly a company’s “product” is when that product can write the prospectus itself.
Globe News Daily has no position in OpenAI. We asked our AI assistant if we should buy in and it said “I’d recommend consulting a financial advisor,” which we found deeply unhelpful and also probably correct.
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