OpenAI's IPO Could Be the Biggest in Tech History — But There's a Massive Twist Nobody Is Talking About

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OpenAI's IPO has been the most anticipated financial event in tech for two years — and now there's a twist that just made the whole thing way more interesting.

OpenAI filed a confidential S-1 with the SEC on June 8, 2026, working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on a listing that was targeting a September 2026 debut. At the private-market valuation being discussed — somewhere between $730 billion and $850 billion — this would rank among the largest IPOs in US history. Some analysts covering the deal expect the listing to push past a $1 trillion market cap on opening day.

So what's the twist? According to the New York Times, OpenAI is now leaning toward delaying the IPO to 2027.

Why the Delay Would Be Significant

This matters for a few reasons. First, the IPO market window for mega-tech listings is competitive. SK Hynix just raised $26.5 billion on the Nasdaq last week. SpaceX IPO'd four weeks ago. If OpenAI pushes to 2027, it's either because they don't need the capital right now, they want more time to get financial metrics in order, or they're watching the market conditions and aren't happy with what they see.

Second — and this is the elephant in the room — OpenAI is getting run over by Anthropic in revenue right now. Anthropic just reported a $47 billion annualized run rate. OpenAI's own projections sit at $25 to $33 billion. If you're trying to price the largest tech IPO in history, you don't want competitors publishing revenue numbers that make you look like you're falling behind.

The Numbers Behind the Valuation

To justify an $850 billion valuation, OpenAI's revenue needs to justify the multiple. The company's annualized revenue crossed $20 billion as it exited 2025, and it has been growing rapidly. But the company is also spending heavily — compute costs, talent, safety research, and the ongoing capital requirements of frontier model development are all massive line items. OpenAI has not reached profitability and hasn't given a public timeline for when it will.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are leading the deal. Those are the two most prestigious underwriters in the business, which tells you this is being positioned as an event, not just a stock listing. They wouldn't take the mandate if they didn't think they could get the deal done at a valuation that makes history.

What a $1 Trillion Opening Day Would Mean

If OpenAI's IPO prices anywhere near those numbers and pops on debut, it would validate the AI infrastructure supercycle in a very public way. It would also create a publicly traded AI pure-play that every retail and institutional investor in the world could access — something that doesn't really exist right now at that scale.

For context: Apple hit $1 trillion in market cap in 2018. Microsoft crossed $1 trillion in 2019. Both took decades to get there. OpenAI would potentially arrive there on day one of its IPO, having been founded just in 2015.

The Sam Altman Factor

One thing nobody is fully pricing in yet: Sam Altman has historically moved fast and made bold bets. The confidential filing happened. The bankers are in place. Even if the September 2026 window slips, the machinery is already running. My gut says this IPO happens before Q2 2027 — and when it does, it's going to be unlike anything the stock market has seen before.

Whether it happens in September 2026 or sometime in 2027, OpenAI's public debut is going to be one of the defining financial events of this decade. I'll be watching very closely.

This post is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

What's your experience? Drop a comment below! 👇 Would you buy OpenAI stock on IPO day, or wait and see how it performs in the first few weeks before jumping in?

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