What OpenAI has reportedly decided

OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, is reported to have pushed its stock-market debut to 2027, stepping back from speculation that it might list sooner and beat its rival Anthropic to the public markets. The reported reason is not a problem but a choice: the company is said to be holding out for a valuation that, in the words attributed to its chief executive, starts with a "T", a one trillion dollar minimum for the offering.

As with any pre-IPO reporting, the important distinction is between what has been filed and what has been said. OpenAI is reported to have submitted a confidential draft registration earlier in 2026, but there is no public prospectus, so the financial detail that would turn these reports into facts is not on the record.

The money, and the losses

Two numbers sit on either side of OpenAI's decision. On one side is its private valuation, reported between roughly 730 and 852 billion dollars, already one of the largest of any private company. On the other is its spending: reporting points to losses of around 14 billion dollars in 2026 alone, with the company not expected to turn a profit until roughly 2029 to 2030.

That gap is the heart of the timing question. A prospectus filed this year would have to show those losses to public investors at the same moment Anthropic has signalled it expects its first operating profit. Waiting lets OpenAI tell a different story later, when its revenue has grown into its costs, or so the reported logic goes. Whether that happens is exactly what a public investor would be betting on, and it is not something anyone can confirm today.

Why it matters for the wider market

OpenAI and Anthropic are the two listings the market has been most focused on, and their timing shapes expectations for a wider wave of technology offerings. A one trillion dollar debut would be one of the largest in history, and the valuations attached to both companies ripple out to the private funds, chipmakers and cloud providers tied to them. That is a reason to watch the schedule, and also a reason to treat round-number valuations with care: a target is not a price.

The Anthropic contrast

The timing reads differently next to Anthropic, which reportedly filed confidentially in June 2026 and is holding investor meetings ahead of a listing of its own. Anthropic has signalled it expects to reach its first operating profit, a cleaner story to take to public investors than one built on multi-billion-dollar losses. That contrast is part of why OpenAI’s delay is being framed as a choice rather than a setback: rather than file a prospectus that shows heavy losses at the same moment a rival shows a profit, OpenAI is reported to be waiting for a stronger hand. Whether the extra time delivers the revenue to justify a one trillion dollar price is the open question, and it is one only its future results, not today’s reporting, can answer.

What is still speculation

The exchange, the ticker, the share count, the price range and the exact date are all unknown. A 2027 timeline is itself a report, not a filing, and both the date and the valuation can move with the company's results and the state of the market. Until a public prospectus appears, the honest description of OpenAI's IPO is an intention backed by reporting, not a scheduled event.

How to follow it

We list OpenAI, Anthropic and the other named upcoming listings on our IPO calendar, each with the source we checked and the date we checked it. We do not forecast prices or listing dates; we record what has been filed or reliably reported, and we update it as the picture firms up.