OpenAI confidentially submits a draft S-1 for an IPO, a week after Anthropic
On June 8, 2026 OpenAI said it had confidentially submitted a draft S-1 registration statement to the US SEC for a proposed IPO, about a week after Anthropic did the same. It said it published the notice because it expected a leak, and that it had not decided on timing: "it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company."
Key facts
- Announced Monday June 8, 2026 in an OpenAI blog post ('Confidential submission of draft S-1 to the SEC'), a notice under Rule 135 of the Securities Act
- OpenAI: 'We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company'; the filing keeps the option to go public sooner
- Last valuation at filing: $852B post-money (March 2026 round, $122B raised incl. ~$3B from retail investors)
- Context (TechCrunch): Anthropic filed confidentially about a week earlier (June 1); SpaceX was expected to list at ~$1.75T; OpenAI projected ~$85B cash burn in 2028
- Later: CFO Sarah Friar told staff OpenAI 'will be a public company in 2027' or sooner (Aug 19); on Sept 12 Altman ruled out a 2026 IPO, and on Sept 29 said no IPO until OpenAI can make confident safety claims (separate entries)
What happened
Following Anthropic's lead, OpenAI started the confidential SEC review process, which lets a company prepare for a listing without publishing financials. It stressed that it had not set a date. In the months that followed, the timeline slipped: Altman later ruled out a 2026 listing and tied an IPO to OpenAI's ability to make confident safety claims, while Anthropic was reported to be preparing a November 2026 listing.
ABC News re-surfaced its June explainer in news feeds on Oct 4, 2026, which is how this gap in the dataset was found.
Why it matters
With both leading frontier labs in SEC review, the two biggest AI companies moved toward public markets in the same month. That puts their finances, risk disclosures and governance under securities-law scrutiny.
Changelog
- 2026-10-04: created (gap found via a re-dated ABC News explainer in the Oct 4 sweep)
People
Related events
- Anthropic confidentially submits draft S-1 for an IPO ★★★
- OpenAI closes record $122B funding round at $852B valuation ★★★★
- Sam Altman rules out a 2026 OpenAI IPO, calling it "ill-advised" given AI safety concerns ★★★
- Altman: no OpenAI IPO until it can make 'confident safety claims', but waiting too long would be 'bad for the world' ★★★
- SpaceX (incl. xAI) lists on Nasdaq in record $75B IPO ★★★★
- Fidji Simo steps down as OpenAI's CEO of AGI Deployment (No. 2) for health reasons; Brockman, Friar and Kwon split her duties ★★★
Sources (4)
- officialOpenAI: Confidential submission of draft S-1 to the SEC
- pressTechCrunch: OpenAI files confidentially for IPO, following Anthropic
- pressABC News: What to know about the OpenAI IPO
- pressCNBC: OpenAI 'will be a public company in 2027' or sooner, CFO Friar tells employees
id: 2026-06-08-openai-confidential-s1-ipo · updated 2026-10-04 · open in the interactive timeline