OpenAI Goes Public: The Race Against Anthropic Intensifies!

OpenAI has officially announced its intention to go public, revealing plans to sell shares through a stock listing in the United States. The company behind the widely popular chatbot ChatGPT made the announcement on Monday, stating that it has submitted a confidential filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering (IPO) in the future. “We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company,” OpenAI said in a statement. This decision had been anticipated for months, but it comes just a week after its rival, Anthropic, also indicated plans for an IPO.

Both companies are now gearing up to list on the stock market, especially following SpaceX’s upcoming debut on the Nasdaq this Friday, where it is expected to achieve a staggering valuation of around $1.75 trillion (£1.3 trillion) per share. OpenAI and Anthropic, the latter known for its chatbot Claude, have been fierce competitors since Dario Amodei co-founded Anthropic five years ago after parting ways with OpenAI due to disagreements with co-founder and CEO, Sam Altman. Today, these two companies are vying for users, corporate clients, and investors, with their private valuations nearing the $1 trillion mark. OpenAI’s most recent valuation was pegged at $852 billion, while Anthropic reached $965 billion.

Now, the big question is: Who will make it to the public stock market first? Neither company has yet disclosed specific timelines. Just last week, Altman mentioned in an interview that he’s in no hurry to take OpenAI public, stating he would proceed “when it makes sense.” In Monday’s statement, OpenAI acknowledged that its IPO plans might leak eventually, and the company described the decision to go public as a “complicated set of tradeoffs.” With the SEC paperwork now filed, OpenAI has the flexibility to go public sooner if it deems it beneficial.

For companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX, going public could mean billions in capital. One of the significant financial burdens of running an AI company is what’s known as “compute,” which refers to the necessary infrastructure and processing power for developing, training, and deploying their services to the public, like a chatbot. To give you an idea, OpenAI’s compute costs are estimated to exceed $100 billion annually, while its revenue is only a fraction of that. SpaceX also isn’t turning a profit yet. However, Anthropic has informed investors that it anticipates becoming profitable in the first half of this year, thanks to substantial sales growth of its Claude product and related services.

Once they go public, both companies will be required to provide quarterly reports on their business performance. OpenAI also took the opportunity to announce new child safety features in response to ongoing scrutiny over certain apps. In other news, the US president is set to meet with leaders from top AI companies next week. Even with challenges like the Iran war, inflation, and debt fears, US markets continue to soar to record highs, largely fueled by advancements in AI.

So, what’s next for these tech giants? Will the AI bubble burst, or will it keep expanding? Only time will tell…

Kaynak: Orijinal Haber