ChatGPT owner OpenAI said on Monday it has filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to make an initial public offering (IPO).

"It may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company," the artificial intelligence company said in a statement.

Monday's announcement comes just a week after rival Anthropic, the maker of Claude AI, did the same and days before Elon Musk's SpaceX, which merged with his xAI company in February, is set to hit the public market.

The AI company race to hit Wall Street

An IPO allows investors to buy shares in a company for the first time and is one of the fastest ways for firms to raise capital.

Reuters reports OpenAI is targeting a valuation of up to $1 trillion (€867 billion) in a stock market debut that could come as early as September, but the company did not disclose the size or terms of the offering and said it had "not decided on timing yet" for any listing.

Like Anthropic and SpaceX, OpenAI is losing money due to the high cost of building AI.

Anthropic, valued at $965 billion after a $65 billion funding round last month, is now ahead of OpenAI, which was last valued at $852 billion in March.

Both firms appear set to follow SpaceX to Wall Street. SpaceX, which absorbed Musk's xAI lab, could begin trading as early as Friday at a roughly $1.75 trillion valuation, the largest IPO on record.

Edited by: Felix Tamsut

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