OpenAI lays groundwork for IPO at up to $1 trillion valuation (finance.yahoo.com)

OpenAI is quietly preparing for a blockbuster IPO that could value the company as high as $1 trillion, with preliminary planning to file as early as the second half of 2026 and a possible listing in 2027. Insiders say OpenAI has eyed raising roughly $60 billion (and likely more), while its annualized revenue run rate could hit about $20 billion by year‑end even as losses grow. The move follows a recent restructuring that places a new nonprofit, the OpenAI Foundation, as a 26% stakeholder (with warrants for more shares), and reduces reliance on Microsoft—which today holds roughly 27% after a $13 billion investment. For the AI/ML community this matters because a public OpenAI would unlock much larger, more liquid capital for compute, data and acquisitions—resources CEO Sam Altman says will be necessary to “pour trillions” into AI infrastructure. That could accelerate model scale, training cycles and industry consolidation, tilting competitive dynamics toward better‑funded players and influencing research priorities. Governance changes (nonprofit oversight plus sizable corporate investors like SoftBank and Abu Dhabi’s MGX) and market timing mean plans could shift, but an IPO would be one of the largest in history and a major inflection point for how cutting‑edge AI is financed and governed.