OpenAI Joins the AI IPO Queue, Anthropic Listing Looms
1h ago|4 min readStandard
Fazen Markets Editorial Desk
Collective editorial team · methodology
openaianthropicai-ipo
Fazen Markets Editorial Desk
Collective editorial team · methodology
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Investing.com reported on 8 June 2026 that OpenAI has initiated the process to become a publicly traded company, joining rival Anthropic in a high-profile queue of artificial intelligence firms targeting initial public offerings. The dual filings confirm a pivotal capital markets transition for the generative AI sector, moving from the domain of private venture funding into the realm of public equity scrutiny and liquidity. This process, expected to unfold over the next 12 to 18 months, positions 2026 as a defining year for AI investment accessibility and could unlock trillions in latent market valuation.
The last comparable wave of foundational technology firms going public was the cloud software boom from 2017 to 2021, which saw over $1 trillion in new market capitalization created via IPOs for companies like Snowflake, Datadog, and Palantir. The current macro backdrop features a Federal Funds rate at 3.75%, a 10-year Treasury yield of 4.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite trading near 18,500, conditions that have recently stabilized to support large-scale tech listings after a multi-year drought. The primary catalyst for this IPO wave is the exhaustion of the traditional private funding runway; OpenAI and Anthropic have each raised over $15 billion in private capital from entities including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and sovereign wealth funds, creating intense pressure for early liquidity for these late-stage investors. the commercial deployment phase of generative AI requires sustained, massive capital expenditure on compute infrastructure, a need better serviced by the deep, recurring capital access of public equity markets.
The scale of these potential IPOs is without precedent in the technology sector. OpenAI's most recent private funding round in late 2025 valued the company at approximately $180 billion. Anthropic's valuation from its last major raise stands near $75 billion. Combined, these two firms alone represent over $250 billion in pre-IPO valuation seeking public market entry. For comparison, the entire US IPO market raised $26.5 billion in 2025. The implied revenue multiples are extreme; industry analysts project OpenAI's 2026 revenue to reach $12-15 billion, suggesting a price-to-sales multiple of 12-15x at its last private mark. This dwarfs the current 7.5x forward sales multiple of the Nasdaq-100 index. The AI semiconductor sector offers another benchmark: Nvidia, with a market capitalization exceeding $3.2 trillion, trades at a forward P/E of 35x, a valuation discipline that public AI software firms will now face.
| Metric | OpenAI | Anthropic | Nasdaq-100 Index |
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Private Valuation | ~$180B | ~$75B | N/A |
| Est. 2026 Revenue | $12-15B | $4-5B | N/A |
| Implied P/S Multiple | 12-15x | 15-19x | 7.5x |
The IPO queue creates immediate second-order effects across the technology ecosystem. Direct beneficiaries include core infrastructure providers like Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), which could see sustained demand visibility for their AI accelerators, and cloud hyperscalers Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), and Google (GOOGL), whose platforms host these models. Specialized AI hardware firms like Cerebras Systems, expected to IPO in late 2026, may see their own valuations re-rated higher. Conversely, incumbent software firms with weaker AI integration roadmaps, such as certain legacy SaaS providers, face heightened competitive risk and potential multiple compression as capital floods toward the new pure-play leaders. A key risk is valuation indigestion; the sheer size of these offerings could draw billions from passive and active tech funds, temporarily crowding out other holdings and testing overall market liquidity. Current positioning shows venture capital and growth equity funds preparing to distribute shares, while long-only public market tech funds are building dedicated sleeves to absorb the supply, indicating a significant rotation of institutional ownership from private to public hands.
Market participants should monitor the SEC filing timelines for S-1 registration statements, typically filed 3-6 months before the IPO pricing date. The first major AI earnings season post-listing in Q1 2027 will be critical for validating growth trajectories and unit economics under public scrutiny. Key technical levels for the broader market include the Nasdaq Composite's 200-day moving average, currently at 17,800, which must hold to sustain a supportive environment for new issuances. If the 10-year Treasury yield breaches 4.5%, risk appetite for highly-valued growth IPOs could diminish rapidly. The success or struggle of these listings will set the tone for the next cohort of AI companies, including expected filings from emerging leaders in AI agents and robotics in 2027.
The current AI cohort is launching with far more substantial revenue bases and clearer paths to profitability than most dot-com companies. OpenAI's estimated $12-15 billion in 2026 revenue eclipses the near-zero sales of many 1999 IPOs. However, valuation multiples as a percentage of future growth expectations are reaching similar extremes, creating a focus on execution risk and the speed of commercial adoption across enterprise and consumer markets.
Retail investors will gain direct, liquid exposure to pure-play AI foundational model companies for the first time. Previously, access was limited to buying shares of large tech conglomerates like Microsoft or Google, which derive only a fraction of their value from generative AI. Post-IPO, these stocks will be available in ETFs and individual brokerage accounts, though likely at premium valuations that demand careful scrutiny of long-term cash flow potential.
The relationship is symbiotic with a competitive undercurrent. Microsoft, Amazon, and Google benefit from increased consumption of their cloud platforms by the now-public AI firms. However, successful IPOs provide OpenAI and Anthropic with war chests to potentially diversify their infrastructure spending, build their own data centers over time, and reduce their long-term dependency on a single hyperscaler, introducing a new phase of negotiation and potential competition.
The 2026 AI IPO wave marks the sector's financial maturation, shifting multi-hundred-billion-dollar valuations from private speculation to public market accountability.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. CFD trading carries high risk of capital loss.
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