OpenAI plans Q4 FY26 IPO amid growing rivalry with Anthropic: Wall Street Journal

OpenAI is speeding up plans for a possible stock market listing in the fourth quarter of this year as competition with rival Anthropic heats up, the Wall Street Journal reported.

According to the report, the company has begun informal discussions with Wall Street banks about an initial public offering (IPO) and is growing its finance team. Recent hires include Ajmere Dale as chief accounting officer and Cynthia Gaylor as corporate business finance officer, who will also handle investor relations.

When the company goes public, OpenAI chief Sam Altman is expected to hand over some duties to the firm’s CEO of Applications, Fidji Simo.


However, WSJ said that delivering a successful IPO by the end of the year will be tough for the $500 billion startup, which is still dealing with the pressures of rapid growth. OpenAI has reshuffled senior leadership and is facing intense competition from Google in its core consumer business, triggering a week-long “code red” push to improve ChatGPT.

The report added that OpenAI executives are privately worried that Anthropic could list first. The Financial Times in December reported that Anthropic has hired law firm Wilson Sonsini to prepare for a potential IPO as early as this year.

Anthropic has also spoken with banks about a listing and made key finance hires, including capital markets head Andrew Zloto and former Blackstone investor Kevin Chang, according to WSJ.

Whichever firm reaches the market first is likely to attract strong interest from public investors eager to gain exposure to generative AI (GenAI). In the fray for investor attention is another giant planning an IPO at a valuation of over $1 trillion — Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is reportedly in merger talks with group entity xAI. SpaceX is reportedly targeting an IPO as early as June 2026.

At the same time, OpenAI is heading to trial in a lawsuit brought by cofounder Elon Musk, who is seeking up to $134 billion in damages.

Both OpenAI and Anthropic are losing billions of dollars annually as they build new AI models and run existing products. However, as reported by Reuters, OpenAI is in the middle of a major fundraising drive — of over $100 billion at a valuation of about $830 billion — that could act as a pre-IPO round.