OpenAI is reportedly preparing for one of the biggest stock market debuts in history, targeting a potential $1 trillion valuation as it eyes an initial public offering in 2026. The move comes as global competition in artificial intelligence intensifies and rival models from China begin to outperform ChatGPT in specific areas like crypto trading.
OpenAI’s Trillion-Dollar Ambition
According to Reuters, OpenAI is planning to file for an IPO with U.S. securities regulators in the second half of 2026. Sources familiar with the matter said the offering could include a $60 billion capital raise, positioning OpenAI as the world’s largest startup by valuation. If successful, it would mark one of the biggest IPOs in history, surpassing the market debuts of major tech companies such as Meta and Alibaba.
The timing would also put OpenAI ahead of its previously expected 2027 target for a public listing. A company spokesperson told Reuters that there is no confirmed date for the IPO, emphasizing that OpenAI’s main goal remains the creation of artificial general intelligence (AGI). “We are building a durable business and advancing our mission so everyone benefits from AGI,” the spokesperson said.
Growing Investor Appetite for AI
The size of the potential offering reflects strong investor demand for exposure to the fast-evolving AI sector. OpenAI’s market value already reached $500 billion in October following a secondary share sale, making it the most valuable startup in the world. In that round, employees sold roughly $6.6 billion worth of shares to major institutional investors.
The $500 billion valuation pushed OpenAI ahead of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which was last valued at about $400 billion. Analysts say the company’s upcoming IPO could attract significant interest from global investors eager to back the next phase of AI growth.
Competition from China’s AI Models
While OpenAI continues to expand its financial base, its flagship product ChatGPT has recently faced unexpected competition. In an autonomous crypto trading challenge, Chinese-developed chatbots DeepSeek and Qwen3 Max outperformed ChatGPT and Elon Musk’s Grok model.
DeepSeek achieved a 9% profit on its crypto trades as of October 22, becoming the only AI system in the competition to post a positive return. ChatGPT-5, by contrast, recorded a 66% trading loss, finishing last among the participants. The results surprised many observers, considering the vast difference in development budgets.
Efficiency Over Scale
DeepSeek’s entire training reportedly cost just $5.3 million, compared with OpenAI’s estimated $5.7 billion in research and development spending during the first half of 2025 alone. The results suggest that effective training data and prompt optimization may play a larger role than overall funding when it comes to specialized performance.
Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at crypto intelligence platform Nansen, said differences in training data likely explain the results. “Assuming all models received the same prompts and instructions for trading, it can be assumed that the difference lies in the data each model has been trained on,” Sondergaard explained.
The Road Ahead
OpenAI’s planned IPO could mark a defining moment for the AI industry, signaling a shift from private dominance to public accountability. However, as rivals in China and elsewhere continue to make rapid progress, OpenAI faces increasing pressure to prove that its massive investments can translate into consistent real-world performance.
With global demand for advanced AI tools showing no signs of slowing, OpenAI’s challenge will be to balance innovation, profitability, and reliability as it prepares for what could become the most anticipated public listing of the decade.
