OpenAI follows Anthropic to the market — and the AI-IPO pipeline comes into view

Eight days after Anthropic, OpenAI said — via a post on X on 8 June 2026 — that it had submitted a confidential S-1 to begin its own path to a public listing. The statement was characteristically candid: 'We expect it to leak so we're just announcing it.' Two of the most valuable private companies in the world are now in the IPO queue within a week of each other, which turns the question from if to who goes first, and at what price — and what that means for every other AI company watching.

Coverage puts the target valuation at roughly $730B–$850B, with some outlets reaching towards ~$1 trillion. The spread itself is informative: these figures come from sources triangulating around a confidential filing, not from disclosed financials. The most concrete anchor is OpenAI's own March 2026 funding round — a $122 billion raise — which priced the company at $852 billion, per Fortune. That round valuation, which CFO Sarah Friar has framed (per reporting) as enough to rank OpenAI among the 15 largest S&P 500 companies, sets the floor expectation rather than the ceiling.

Underwriters are reported as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — the banks that earn more when the valuation prints higher — with JPMorgan also named in some accounts. A debut window of September–November 2026 has been floated, though OpenAI has been deliberate in messaging that 'it may be a while' and the timing is undecided. That kind of explicit caveat from the company itself is worth carrying forward whenever the exact quarter gets cited.

The strategic read is straightforward: neither lab wants to be the one that lists second into a market that has already made its AI-company verdict. Filing early preserves optionality while setting the narrative. There is also a genuine concern — one that Fortune's reporting surfaces explicitly — that if Anthropic reaches the public markets first it could dampen demand for its rival. That is the chess match behind the choreography. Both companies file confidentially, keep timing vague, and hold maximum flexibility while signalling seriousness to investors.

The first publicly filed prospectus from either lab will set the comparables that every later AI listing is measured against — the P/E analogies, the growth-rate expectations, the revenue-per-model metrics. Until then, the confidential phase is a holding pattern: the SEC is reviewing, the bankers are building the book, and the market is watching which company blinks first and goes public. OpenAI's roughly $600 billion infrastructure plan also implies the IPO is not merely about liquidity for founders — it is about the capital to run the next phase of the buildout. That read, more than any specific price target, is the throughline to hold.

For every figure in this story, carry the 'reported' label — the filing is confidential, the financials are not public, and the window is explicitly open. What is confirmed: OpenAI filed, announced it proactively, and has tied its public-market move directly to its capital needs for a very long infrastructure buildout ahead.