SAN FRANCISCO, May 31, 2026, 09:03 (PDT)
- OpenAI has reportedly talked about bringing Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase onto its roster of banks for a potential IPO—another hint that the long-rumored listing could be drawing nearer.
- Anthropic and SpaceX are now turning up the heat, pushing investors to reckon with valuations for three major private tech firms all at the same time, just as talks get underway.
OpenAI has been in discussions with Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase about potential roles in its upcoming IPO, according to people with knowledge of the talks cited by Bloomberg News. The company is ramping up efforts for what could become one of the tech sector’s biggest public debuts. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are already in the mix, and Citigroup and JPMorgan could be added to the roster—though Bloomberg notes these conversations might not end up in official assignments. OpenAI, Citigroup, and JPMorgan all declined to comment.
Timing is key here: Wall Street desks are bracing for an uncommon wave of blockbuster IPOs from companies linked to artificial intelligence and space. According to analysts cited by Reuters, big mutual funds and passive index players have started building cash reserves and even eyeing potential sales from their current large-cap portfolios, all in anticipation of possible offerings from SpaceX and OpenAI.
An IPO marks a private company’s debut on public markets, selling shares to outside investors for the first time. If OpenAI moves ahead with one, it’s a bet that the market will overlook steep outlays on chips, data centers, and model training in favor of rapid revenue gains.
OpenAI is moving to file confidentially for a U.S. IPO in the coming weeks and has set its sights on a possible public launch as soon as September, according to Reuters, which cited people with knowledge of the plans earlier this month. IPOX Vice President Kat Liu noted that resolving a legal dispute with Musk “removed a major obstacle to an IPO,” adding that simultaneous filings from OpenAI and SpaceX would force portfolio managers to “evaluate both companies side by side.” Reuters
Reuters pegged the company’s valuation at $852 billion in March. Earlier, the outlet also reported OpenAI had looked into a possible IPO at a price tag as high as $1 trillion, considering raising at least $60 billion in initial talks.
This week delivered another shakeup in the AI race. Anthropic announced a $65 billion raise, lifting its post-money valuation to $965 billion—surpassing the last figure reported by OpenAI and offering investors a new heavyweight to size up against Sam Altman’s shop. The Claude developer reported its run-rate revenue topped $47 billion earlier this month.
SpaceX is also under the spotlight. Elon Musk’s rocket firm has put in IPO paperwork and is eyeing a roughly $1.75 trillion valuation, according to Reuters. The pitch hinges not just on Starlink and rocket reusability, but also on AI infrastructure plans—think space-based data centers.
So now there’s an odd dynamic playing out in public markets. OpenAI pitches its brand as the force behind generative AI’s rise to the mainstream. Anthropic, on its part, keeps chipping away with traction among business clients and developers. SpaceX, meanwhile, draws investor interest with its profitable satellite internet and launch operations—plus an AI angle that’s trickier to pin a value on.
Risks aren’t hard to spot. Jay Ritter, a University of Florida professor focused on IPOs, points out that companies trading at sky-high price-to-sales multiples are often the ones that stumble down the road—even if their pitch sounds irresistible. Reuters noted SpaceX would be coming in at a price-to-sales ratio close to 100. Ritter didn’t sugarcoat it: “stuff could go wrong.” Reuters
OpenAI has its own set of questions hanging over it. Reuters Breakingviews points out the company isn’t profitable yet and Anthropic is another source of pressure. The range of OpenAI’s ventures and its history with governance might also muddy the waters for public investors trying to gauge Altman’s decisions. BNP Paribas analysts project OpenAI could hit free-cash-flow positivity by 2031, Breakingviews added.
SpaceX’s connection to Anthropic takes the story in yet another direction. Musk maintained that SpaceX signed up for just a 180-day lease—no long-term commitment—letting Anthropic use its Colossus AI training data center clusters, though he left the door open for an extension. That came after Reuters reported that SpaceX’s IPO filing laid out agreements where Anthropic would shell out $1.25 billion per month for compute through May 2029.
OpenAI’s immediate move: focus on its banking lineup. Filling out the roster doesn’t lock in a listing this year, but it does inch the company toward the intersection of private market pricing, AI appetite, and how long investors are willing to wait—all coming into the spotlight.
