OpenAI is considering pushing back its planned stock market debut by at least a year. The reason is straightforward. The man who runs the company refuses to settle for anything less than a one trillion dollar valuation. His advisers have told him that getting that figure in the current market is unlikely.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that OpenAI’s financial advisers presented the company’s chief executive, Sam Altman, with two clear options. The first was to list on the public market later this year and accept a valuation somewhat below the one trillion dollar target. The second was to wait until 2027 when market conditions might be more favourable and the company’s own finances stronger. Altman’s response to the first option was reported to be immediate and firm. He called any reduction in the target valuation a nonstarter.
OpenAI filed confidential paperwork with American financial regulators on the 8th of June, taking the first formal step toward a public listing. At the time, the company said publicly that no firm decision had been made on timing. The chief financial officer, Sarah Friar, had separately told some associates that a 2027 listing was the working target. Thursday’s report by the Times and similar accounts in Reuters and Bloomberg brought those internal deliberations into public view for the first time.
The number Altman wants is enormous. OpenAI’s most recent private funding round placed its value at somewhere between $730 billion and $852 billion. Reaching one trillion dollars would require a further jump of between $150 billion and $270 billion on top of that. The company’s revenue is currently running at roughly $2 billion per month. That figure is growing. But the company is also spending heavily and losing more than one billion dollars every month. The gap between income and outgoings is expected to narrow over time. Whether it narrows fast enough to justify a one trillion dollar price tag in the eyes of public market investors is the central question.
The backdrop to this deliberation is not encouraging. OpenAI had been watching carefully as SpaceX went through its own stock market debut earlier this month. SpaceX raised more than $85 billion in what was described as the largest listing in history. Shares soared within days of trading beginning. Then they fell sharply. By Thursday the stock had dropped more than 30 per cent from its peak. Elon Musk lost his brief status as the world’s first trillionaire. The episode sent a clear signal. Enormous headline numbers and record listings do not guarantee a stable aftermarket. Investors who paid near the top lost significant amounts of money in a very short time.
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OpenAI’s advisers pointed to this as evidence of the risk involved in pushing ahead quickly. Technology shares more broadly have been under pressure. Investors are asking harder questions about when companies in this sector will actually become consistently profitable. A listing that enters a nervous market and disappoints in its early weeks can cause lasting damage to a company’s reputation with public investors.
There is also a separate complication related to OpenAI’s newest and most capable programme. The American government has requested that the company release it through a controlled, staged process rather than making it widely available at launch. Altman told staff the rollout would proceed through a limited preview with access approved on a case by case basis. The request came from the White House’s technology and science policy offices. Staged releases of this kind add uncertainty to the timeline of commercial growth.
As reported, the deliberations over timing come as OpenAI faces competition from its closest rival on multiple fronts. Anthropic, which makes the Claude family of programmes and in which both Amazon and Google are significant investors, filed its own confidential listing paperwork on the 1st of June. A week later OpenAI followed. Anthropic raised money in May at a valuation of $965 billion. That figure briefly overtook OpenAI’s private valuation for the first time, a development that those tracking the two companies described as a notable shift in the competitive balance.
The queue of companies preparing to list is long. The markets they are listing into are volatile. And the broader conversation among investors has shifted noticeably in recent weeks. Questions about whether spending on computing tools delivers a clear financial return have grown louder. Corporate budgets that were allocated to computing services this year have in some cases already been exhausted. One large company burned through its entire annual budget in four months. That kind of news does not help the case for trillion dollar valuations.
OpenAI has not commented publicly on the Times report. The company’s earlier statement noted that it had options and had not yet decided when to use them. For now, Altman appears to have made his own calculation clearly. A smaller number sooner is not the deal he wants. He is prepared to let the clock run.
About the Author
Marcel Chidozie is a tech analyst and writer covering foreign news, fintech, and emerging technologies at TechRegard. Based in Nigeria, He's passionate about translating complex tech developments into compelling, accessible stories for diverse audiences. His work focuses on how technology shapes innovation across Africa and globally.
