The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 29th that OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has begun preparations for an initial public offering (IPO) with a goal of listing in the fourth quarter this year.
According to the WSJ, OpenAI is holding informal talks with U.S. investment banks about its IPO. At the same time, it is strengthening its finance capabilities by hiring a chief accounting officer (CAO) and a corporate business finance officer (CBFO).
OpenAI is currently the most valuable unlisted company in the world. The company's valuation is estimated at about $500 billion (about 719 trillion won). OpenAI is pursuing a large fundraising round exceeding $100 billion (about 143.7 trillion won), which could become a pre-IPO equity process, the WSJ said.
In this round, Japan's SoftBank is considering investing $30 billion (about 43 trillion won), and Amazon is said to be negotiating with OpenAI to put in $50 billion (about 72 trillion won), roughly half the target amount. If the fundraising succeeds, OpenAI's valuation is expected to soar to $830 billion (about 1,190 trillion won).
Bloomberg said the industry is particularly watching the possibility of Amazon investing in OpenAI. If Amazon strikes a partnership to use ChatGPT in its own products and services along with a large investment, it could significantly reshape the AI industry.
Anthropic, seen as an "OpenAI rival," is also pushing for a listing this year. The WSJ said OpenAI's leadership has shown concern in private settings about the possibility that Anthropic could go public before it, reflecting strong competitive instincts. Anthropic, which operates the AI chatbot "Claude," is expanding its business with a focus on enterprise AI.
If OpenAI goes public, this year is expected to be an unprecedented IPO "blockbuster" season. SpaceX, the space company of Elon Musk, is also preparing to list this year.