OpenAI aiming for speedy IPO, source says, as market awaits SpaceX filing

May 20 (Reuters) – OpenAI is preparing to confidentially file for a U.S. initial public offering in the coming weeks, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

The plan by the ChatGPT maker, which was last valued at $852 billion, comes two days after it fended off an existential court challenge from Elon Musk and threatens to upstage an IPO filing by Musk’s SpaceX, expected later in the day.

OpenAI is aiming to go public as early as September and is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on a draft IPO prospectus that it plans to file with the regulators soon, the source said.

The AI company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the company’s plans.

OpenAI had raised $122 billion earlier this year, likely marking Silicon Valley’s largest-ever funding round.

But in recent months, it has revised its product roadmap twice amid competition from rivals, first Google and then Anthropic, with some industry watchers expecting Anthropic’s revenue growth to surpass OpenAI’s within months to come.

OpenAI was considering filing with securities regulators as soon as the second half of 2026, Reuters had exclusively reported last year.

(Reporting by Utkarsh Shetti and Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Arun Koyyur)