OpenAI plans stock market debut, setting up new race with Anthropic

OpenAI, the company behind popular chatbot ChatGPT, has become the latest artificial intelligence (AI) giant to reveal plans to sell shares to the public through a stock listing. Its decision had been expected for months, but the company's announcement comes exactly one week after rival AI firm Anthropic said it was planning to go public, too. OpenAI said on Monday it had made a confidential filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to pursue an initial public offering (IPO) at some point in the future. Its plans are the latest in a wave of heavyweight IPOs, alongside Anthropic and billionaire Elon Musk's rocket company, SpaceX, which is set to debut on the Nasdaq on Friday. SpaceX is targeting a share price which would value the company at $1.75tn (£1.3tn). Announcing its IPO plans on Monday, OpenAI said: "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." The three firms all have a "vast need for cash", said Sunil Krishnan from Aviva Investors, and "no-one wants to be last" in the game to go public, he told the BBC's Today programme. He said that the firms are making huge investment