What’s going on?
OpenAI — the company that gave us the very popular chatbot ChatGPT — is getting ready for a big step: going public. That means they want to sell shares of the company on the stock market. This is called an IPO (Initial Public Offering).
The exciting part? If things go as planned, the company could be valued at up to US $1 trillion — a huge number, making this one of the biggest IPOs we’ve ever seen.
Why are they doing this?
- OpenAI is spending a lot of money to build advanced computers, data-centres and technology to make AI more powerful. To continue this, they need a lot of money.
- By going public, they can raise big amounts of cash from the public and investors. For example, they may raise around US $60 billion just to get started.
- Also, the company changed its structure so that it can work more like a regular business (not just a non-profit), which makes an IPO more feasible.
When might it happen?
There’s no exact date yet. Some insiders say the filing (paperwork for the IPO) could happen in the second half of 2026. But the actual listing (when shares begin trading) might happen in 2027 or even late 2026.
Some key numbers and facts:
- Valuation target: Up to US $1 trillion.
- Money they may raise: At least US $60 billion.
- Projected annual revenue rate: Around US $20 billion by end of 2025. But even with big revenue, losses are also going up.
- One of their big partners is Microsoft, which invested about US $13 billion and holds about 27% of OpenAI.
Why is it important?
- If OpenAI’s IPO succeeds at this scale, it will mark a major milestone in the AI industry and how much investors believe in companies that build artificial intelligence.
- It shows how fast the AI sector is growing and how companies are moving from just research to full-scale businesses.
- For students, it’s a real-world example of how technology, business, investment and innovation combine in big ways.
How you can explain it to students:
Think of it like this: Imagine a very smart robot company that started small, built a really useful tool (ChatGPT). Now, that company wants to grow very big — make more tools, build big machines, reach more people. To do that, it needs a ton of money. So it’s opening up to outsiders (regular people + investors) so they can buy a piece of it (shares). If many people believe this robot company will become the next big thing, they might pay huge amounts now — that’s why the valuation (price tag) could hit $1 trillion.