OpenAI is pushing its IPO timeline back to 2027, opting to wait for a valuation that starts with a “T” rather than rush to market behind Anthropic. The company’s CEO Sam Altman has reportedly drawn a hard line: nothing below $1 trillion is acceptable.
The trillion-dollar waiting game
The New York Times reported on June 25, 2026, that OpenAI is considering the delay after previously targeting a late 2026 listing. The shift puts it behind Anthropic, which confidentially filed its S-1 on June 1, 2026, positioning Dario Amodei’s company to potentially beat OpenAI to the public markets.
OpenAI’s last private valuation sits somewhere between $730 billion and $852 billion. Bridging that gap in a single year would require either explosive revenue growth, a euphoric market, or both.
OpenAI’s projected revenue for 2025 is roughly $13 billion, with the company recently hitting a monthly run-rate of $2 billion. But they also come packaged with massive infrastructure spending that keeps the company deep in the red.
