Sam Altman's OpenAI may be losing money to the tune of $1 billion a month. It may be struggling to convert more than 5% of ChatGPT users to paid customers. And it may be losing ground to rivals like Anthropic (makers of the highly-teased Claude Mythos) and Google (makers of the freshly updated Gemini).
But OpenAI investors still believe they can cash in — perhaps to the tune of $1 trillion — if the company launches on the stock market soon.
And now that Elon Musk's lawsuit (which claimed OpenAI defrauded him during its conversion to a for-profit company) has been dismissed at trial on a technicality, the launch window appears to be opening.
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Sources at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley told reporters at the Wall Street Journal that the OpenAI IPO would be filed with regulators as early as this Friday. And though plans remain "fluid," the Journal warned, that would mean you'll likely see OpenAI shares debut on the NYSE as soon as September.
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Musk, meanwhile, says he plans to appeal the trial verdict; a bonanza IPO for a company still nominally governed by a nonprofit board may help bolster his case. Ironically, Musk is currently distracted by his own pending IPO bonanza; SpaceX, fresh off its acquisition of xAI, is also reportedly ready to file paperwork with regulators this week.
So, Altman, increasingly Musk's AI nemesis, may be taking a little of his rival's thunder here. But exactly how much Altman will take home from an OpenAI IPO remains a mystery.
The CEO confirmed in the courtroom what has been an open secret for some time — that Altman does have investments in the company, via a fund at the Silicon Valley incubator he used to run, YCombinator.
In 2023, Altman told the U.S. Senate he had no financial stake in the company, per The Atlantic. He's now the target of a probe led by GOP members of the House Oversight Committee, which is looking into OpenAI's habit of making deals with other companies Altman has investments in.
In other words, Altman's long-documented reputation for telling people what they want to hear may be catching up with him, while the wheels are wobbling a bit on the OpenAI bandwagon. And yet, at the same time, a payday of unknown magnitude approaches.
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Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.