Will OpenAI Go Public This Year? The Suspense of a Trillion-Dollar Valuation Listing and a Guide to Participating in Gate Pre-IPOs

The capital markets of 2026 are destined to be extraordinary.

On May 20th, SpaceX officially submitted its IPO registration documents to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Just one day later, rumors spread that OpenAI is also preparing to secretly file its draft prospectus, aiming to go public as early as September this year. Two trillion-dollar-level IPOs are nearly simultaneously kicking off. For OpenAI—this company that has stood at the forefront of the global AI wave since the advent of ChatGPT—will its IPO come to fruition, and what kind of participation window will it offer investors?

Will OpenAI go public this year? A comprehensive update on the latest developments

News about OpenAI's listing has been circulating almost every few months over the past two years. But this time, the situation is clearly different.

According to reports from The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets, OpenAI has partnered with top investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to begin drafting its IPO prospectus, with plans to submit it confidentially to the SEC as early as May 22, 2026. The target listing window is set for September 2026, with an estimated valuation surpassing $1 trillion, and a planned fundraising of about $60 billion—this figure would exceed Saudi Aramco’s 2019 IPO record of $25.6 billion.

However, even if the application is filed, the actual timing of OpenAI’s listing remains uncertain. CEO Sam Altman favors an early September “push” to list, aiming to seize the AI sector’s capital market advantage; but CFO Sarah Friar adopts a more cautious stance, believing the company needs more time to optimize its financial structure. Additionally, OpenAI founder and CEO Altman does not hold any shares directly, and this “zero-shareholder CEO” governance structure will be a disclosure point that cannot be avoided in the IPO prospectus.

As of now, OpenAI has not issued any official IPO announcement; all information remains in the “preparation for filing” stage. But investment banks have already begun drafting the prospectus, indicating that the credibility of these IPO rumors is much higher than any previous ones. The market generally believes September is the most likely window for OpenAI’s listing, but whether it proceeds as scheduled still depends on the official documents disclosed by the SEC.

The confidence and pitfalls of a trillion-dollar valuation: a panoramic view of OpenAI’s fundamentals

Data perspective: sustained high growth

On March 31, 2026, OpenAI announced it had completed commitments of $122 billion in investments, with a post-money valuation of $852 billion. This round involved strategic partners like Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank, with Microsoft continuing to follow suit. Supporting this high valuation are impressive operational metrics: by the end of February 2026, ChatGPT’s weekly active users exceeded 900 million, with over 50 million paying users; monthly revenue reached $2 billion, and annualized revenue surpassed $25 billion.

From the macro background of the global AI industry, OpenAI’s IPO rush coincides with a historic expansion period for the sector. According to Gartner’s latest forecast released on May 19, 2026, global AI spending is expected to reach $2.59 trillion in 2026, a 47% year-over-year increase, with short-term growth in AI model expenditure revised up to 110%. In this rapidly growing track, as of February 2026, OpenAI still accounts for 61.7% of the global large language model traffic share.

Risk layer: high losses and fierce competition

But behind these dazzling numbers, OpenAI also faces severe challenges.

In Q1 2026, OpenAI’s revenue was approximately $5.7 billion, but even excluding stock-based compensation and other items, its profit margin was still -122%, and the company remains deep in the loss swamp. The full year of 2026 is projected to burn through $25 billion in cash, spending about $1.60 to $2.25 to earn each dollar, with profitability not expected until as early as 2029.

The competitive landscape is equally daunting. According to the AI index report released by fintech platform Ramp, in April 2026, 34.4% of surveyed enterprise clients were paying for Anthropic’s AI products, surpassing OpenAI’s 32.3% for the first time. Anthropic is also actively preparing for its own IPO, with private market valuations pushed close to $1 trillion. Moreover, although Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI was dismissed in its entirety, he has made it clear he will appeal. The governance structure of non-profit organizations will still face strict scrutiny from regulators during IPO review.

Approaching exchanges, AI giants race to IPO

OpenAI is not the only AI giant rushing to go public in 2026. SpaceX has officially submitted its IPO registration, planning to list on NASDAQ in June 2026 with a target valuation of $1.75 trillion. Anthropic has also engaged legal teams to advance its listing process, with an estimated valuation of about $380 billion. These three super-unicorns are likely to queue up for IPOs within the same window in 2026, igniting a fierce capital race around the AI track.

Gate Pre-IPOs: opening a new channel for early unicorn investments

In traditional finance, pre-IPO investments have long been the exclusive domain of top venture capital firms, hedge funds, and ultra-high-net-worth individuals. The participation threshold is usually in the millions of dollars, requiring qualified investor status, effectively barring ordinary retail investors.

In April 2026, cryptocurrency exchange Gate officially launched a digital pre-IPO participation mechanism, opening this formerly institutional-only early investment channel to over 52 million users worldwide. So far, this mechanism has successfully onboarded projects like SpaceX (SPCX) and is actively preparing for pre-IPO subscription opportunities for super-unicorns like OpenAI.

Operation mechanism: tokenized equity and PreToken

The core logic of Gate Pre-IPOs is to tokenize traditional pre-IPO equity or financing rights via blockchain technology, creating digital assets that can be subscribed to and traded within the platform. Users do not need to open overseas securities accounts or meet high net worth thresholds; holding stablecoins like USDT is sufficient to participate.

The platform introduces a PreToken minting and settlement mechanism: users pledge USDT to mint PreTokens representing future equity rights, which can be freely traded on the order book market. When the project officially goes public, the system automatically executes a 1:1 asset conversion, returning the pledged USDT to users. This design fundamentally solves liquidity issues and long lock-up periods common in traditional private markets, creating a 24/7 liquidity trading environment for users.

Participation steps: three steps to unlock early investment opportunities

As of May 2026, participating in Gate Pre-IPOs involves only three steps:

• Access point: Visit the “Pre-IPOs” or “PreMarket” section on the Gate platform.
• Join the waitlist: Receive subscription reminders; the system will push notifications via email and in-platform messages when subscription opens.
• Complete preparations: Finish KYC verification and ensure sufficient USDT balance for subscription.

Once the subscription window opens, users can directly participate using USDT, with a minimum participation of just 100 USDT and no high fees.

Allocation mechanism: average locked amount

Unlike traditional platforms that use lotteries or fixed allocations, Gate employs an “hourly average locked amount” algorithm: the earlier and longer a user locks funds, the higher their final allocation weight. The system determines final shares based on the user’s average locked amount over the entire subscription period relative to the total average locked amount of all participants. This time-weighted funding competition model encourages long-term participation and balances different investor interests.

Exit options: pre-market trading and multiple choices

After asset allocation, users can enter an exclusive pre-market trading environment supporting 24/7 trading, with prices driven entirely by supply and demand. Users can choose to sell directly in pre-market or wait until the company’s official listing for redemption. If the company is acquired or merged, settlement will be based on the transaction outcome.

Taking SpaceX’s SPCX as an example, within 24 hours of subscription opening, the total subscription amount exceeded $353 million, demonstrating strong market enthusiasm.

Risk warning: considerations for participating in Gate Pre-IPOs

Before participating in Gate Pre-IPOs, investors should fully understand the following key risks:

• Not direct equity: Pre-IPO tokens are typically mirror notes or similar products; users do not acquire actual company shares and do not have equity attributes, dividends, or voting rights.
• Counterparty risk: In synthetic Pre-IPO exposure models, investors rely on the issuing platform to maintain solvency, execute redemptions, and uphold the tracking mechanism between tokens and reference values.
• Liquidity risk: Unlike publicly traded stocks, exit opportunities largely depend on internal market demand rather than external exchanges.
• Listing uncertainty: The target company may delay IPO, change listing plans, or fail to list altogether, affecting the final settlement value of Pre-IPO assets.

Summary

OpenAI’s IPO is progressing at an unprecedented pace. Based on market information, the most core expectation is a September 2026 listing with a valuation aiming for $1 trillion. However, huge losses, fierce competition, unique governance structures, and internal management disagreements add many uncertainties to this trillion-dollar listing feast. Whether the bell rings on time ultimately depends on the SEC’s official disclosures.

For ordinary investors wishing to position before OpenAI’s official listing, Gate Pre-IPOs offer a low-threshold, accessible participation channel. Through tokenized equity, PreToken minting, and 24/7 pre-market trading, the once-exclusive pre-IPO investment opportunities for top institutions are now digitally accessible to global retail investors for the first time. But investors must also clearly recognize that Pre-IPO assets are not direct equity, and risks related to listing delays and liquidity are very real.

The capital markets of 2026 are witnessing a historic shift from private valuation to public market pricing in the AI industry. The IPO race among the three super-unicorns—SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic—will profoundly influence the valuation logic of global tech assets in the coming years. For ordinary investors, the birth of Gate Pre-IPOs means that even without millions of dollars, they can stand at the starting line of this capital feast.