OpenAI has submitted a confidential S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), starting the process for an initial public offering (IPO).

On June 8 (local time), foreign media outlets including The Verge reported that OpenAI disclosed the move. Anthropic also began the same process on June 1, accelerating IPO competition in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

A confidential submission is a preliminary step toward a listing. As a result, details typically disclosed through an S-1, such as executive compensation, business risks and granular financial information, have not yet been made public. OpenAI is continuing its preparations, but information investors and the market can verify is expected to remain limited for the time being.

The move extends an IPO race between OpenAI and Anthropic that has lasted nearly a year. By valuation, Anthropic is ahead. After a recent fundraising, Anthropic’s post-money valuation was assessed at $965.0 billion, exceeding OpenAI’s recent post-money valuation of $852.0 billion. As the AI model rivalry expands into a fundraising battle, the pace of the two companies’ IPO preparations has emerged as a key variable for the market.

David Shapiro (데이비드 샤피로), founder and chief executive of OpenVC, assessed that OpenAI’s value has already been reflected substantially from the perspective of secondary-market investors. He said OpenAI’s valuation has not been damaged and remains at a very successful level by market metrics. He also analysed that a slight rise in OpenAI’s share price in recent days may be because investors view OpenAI and Anthropic together as the "two winners" in the large language model (LLM) race.

Still, the push to go public is not driven only by an aggressive growth strategy. OpenAI is reportedly falling short of its own expectations for new users and revenue targets. Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar (사라 프라이어) was reported to have voiced concerns over whether the company can bear the massive spending needed for data centre investment.

Inside OpenAI, differences in views over the speed of an IPO have also been raised. Reports said Friar was not as proactive about pursuing a listing as CEO Sam Altman (샘 알트먼). The background cited includes revenue targets and user growth falling short of expectations, and concerns over whether it can shoulder promises of large-scale computing investment.

In particular, plans to invest in computing infrastructure are likely to be a key focus of scrutiny in the listing process. OpenAI previously said it planned to invest $1.4 trillion in computing infrastructure, and Altman at times took a defensive stance when asked about the figure in public. OpenAI later revised its explanation, telling investors in February that it planned to invest $600.0 billion in computing through 2030. With the scale of investment sharply adjusted, profitability, the financing structure and the sustainability of spending are expected to become major points of contention in future public documents.

This is making competition over listing timing more important from a fundraising perspective. Experts believe the company that lists first is more likely to absorb more AI investment capital, which is becoming increasingly scarce. With SpaceX also preparing an IPO, a concentration of funds into large technology companies could intensify further. Anthropic’s IPO filings, if disclosed first, could also serve as a comparable for pricing OpenAI’s offering. PitchBook has also recently presented an analysis that OpenAI is overvalued relative to its fundamentals.

The IPO timing itself is also drawing attention. The announcement came weeks after a jury verdict in a trial between Elon Musk and Altman. It also coincides with SpaceX’s planned IPO on June 12, led by Musk. SpaceX aims to raise $80.0 billion through the listing, challenging for the largest IPO on record.

OpenAI’s market debut is likely to be directly compared with SpaceX. SpaceX has acquired xAI, a competitor to OpenAI, and has also signed a contract with Anthropic. Anthropic agreed to pay SpaceX $15.0 billion a year for use of SpaceX data centres. In this way, AI company listings are expanding beyond simple fundraising into issues tied to competition for computing infrastructure, strategic partnerships and a reshaping of valuations.

OpenAI’s choice of a confidential filing means detailed financial information will not be disclosed immediately, but market attention is intensifying simply because it has formally entered the IPO process. If public filings later reveal revenue growth, user metrics, the burden of computing costs and funding needs, those details are expected to become key variables in determining whether OpenAI’s IPO succeeds.