OpenAI Prepares for IPO Filing as Rival Anthropic Seeks $900 Billion Valuation

2026-05-21

The BareStory

Artificial intelligence firm OpenAI is preparing to confidentially file a draft prospectus for an initial public offering as soon as Friday. The anticipated filing positions the company to potentially debut on public exchanges before its primary competitor, Anthropic, which is also considering an initial public offering.

As the companies approach the public markets, both are commanding massive private valuations. Anthropic is currently negotiating a funding round that would value the enterprise at $900 billion, surpassing the $850 billion valuation private investors currently place on OpenAI. According to an unnamed source familiar with Anthropic's finances, the company is on track to post its first profitable quarter, projecting $10.9 billion in second-quarter revenue following $4.8 billion generated in the first quarter.

To meet the high demand for its Claude AI models, Anthropic is rapidly expanding its infrastructure. According to a newly released SpaceX IPO prospectus, Anthropic has agreed to pay SpaceX $1.25 billion monthly through May 2029 to utilize computing capacity at a data center in Memphis, Tennessee. Meanwhile, the company is reportedly working to restore its relationship with the U.S. Defense Department, which previously restricted Anthropic after a disagreement over military access to the firm's models.

OpenAI has navigated its own recent challenges, including internal debates between executive leadership regarding the pace of its market debut, as well as investor concerns over spending and leadership turnover. However, the company recently secured a court victory against Elon Musk. Following reports of OpenAI’s impending filing, prediction market traders shifted their forecasts to heavily favor OpenAI reaching the public markets ahead of Anthropic, a milestone that market analysts suggest will provide a crucial advantage in setting industry valuations.

Left Perspective

Speculative Mega-Valuation Gamble
Fueling Tech Consolidation Engines
Sacrificing Guardrails for Scale

Right Perspective

Pricing the Innovation Engine
Validating Scalable Business Models
Aligning Strategic Tech Assets

Left Perspective

• Speculative Mega-Valuation Gamble Massive private valuations of $900 billion for Anthropic and $850 billion for OpenAI signal a dangerous speculative bubble rather than grounded economic reality. Pushing these untested behemoths onto public exchanges transfers the financial risk of highly capitalized experiments onto retail investors and the broader market. The rush to secure the "crucial advantage" of a first-mover IPO is driven by early institutional capital seeking a lucrative exit before the underlying hype potentially cools.

• Fueling Tech Consolidation Engines Anthropic's agreement to funnel $1.25 billion monthly to SpaceX for Memphis data center capacity highlights the rapid, unchecked consolidation of resources among a few tech titans. This staggering infrastructure expenditure creates insurmountable barriers to entry, crowding out smaller innovators and centralizing computational power in the hands of interconnected corporate giants. Such massive capital concentration prioritizes building monopolistic market moats over fostering a decentralized, equitable technological ecosystem.

• Sacrificing Guardrails for Scale The relentless race to public markets inevitably forces AI firms to compromise their ethical boundaries in pursuit of aggressive revenue targets. Anthropic’s pivot to restore its relationship with the U.S. Defense Department—abandoning previous restrictions on military access to its models—demonstrates how immediate financial pressures erode foundational moral commitments. Coupled with OpenAI’s internal leadership turnover and spending disputes, this hyper-commercialization proves that institutional accountability and safety are being subordinated to shareholder returns.

Right Perspective

• Pricing the Innovation Engine The impending public market debuts of OpenAI and Anthropic represent a vital mechanism for accurate price discovery and capital allocation in a transformative new industry. Valuations reaching $900 billion and $850 billion reflect the market's rational expectation of massive, economy-wide productivity gains driven by generative AI. By aiming to file its draft prospectus on Friday, OpenAI is utilizing capital markets exactly as intended, leveraging competition to fund innovation while allowing the public to invest in systemic growth.

• Validating Scalable Business Models Astronomical infrastructure costs are markers of robust economic health when backed by explosive, tangible revenue growth. Anthropic's trajectory from $4.8 billion in the first quarter to a projected $10.9 billion in the second quarter—alongside anticipated profitability—proves these firms are building sustainable, demand-driven enterprises. Securing the Memphis data center through a $1.25 billion monthly SpaceX contract is a necessary, calculated capital expenditure to ensure market dominance and meet the skyrocketing demand for Claude models.

• Aligning Strategic Tech Assets Market maturity requires visionary tech companies to overcome internal friction and align with broader national strategic interests. OpenAI moving past executive debates regarding IPO pacing and securing a legal victory against Elon Musk signals a necessary shift toward disciplined, market-ready corporate governance. Furthermore, Anthropic’s practical decision to restore ties with the Defense Department ensures that America’s most advanced computational capabilities strengthen strategic national security rather than remaining sidelined by internal ideological constraints.

How it may affect me

As a U.S. reader:

• In the short term, the transition of OpenAI and Anthropic to public markets will allow retail investors the opportunity to directly buy shares in artificial intelligence companies, though it also exposes the broader public market to the financial risks associated with their massive private valuations.

• Over the long term, the heavy consolidation of computing infrastructure, such as Anthropic's multibillion-dollar agreement with SpaceX, could drive widespread productivity gains across the economy, but it may also limit consumer choices by creating barriers that crowd out smaller tech startups.

• The decision by Anthropic to restore its relationship with the U.S. Defense Department means that American national security and military capabilities will increasingly utilize advanced AI models, which represents a shift away from earlier corporate ethical restrictions regarding military access to the technology.

OpenAI Prepares for IPO Filing as Rival Anthropic Seeks $900 Billion Valuation

The BareStory

Left Perspective

Right Perspective

How it may affect me

Read the story at