OpenAI IPO timeline raises concerns amid tech selloff

OpenAI confidentially filed its draft S-1 registration statement with the SEC on June 8. Two and a half weeks later, the company is reportedly reconsidering whether 2026 is the right year to actually go public.

The culprit is familiar: a broader tech selloff that has hammered AI stock valuations and made the window for a blockbuster debut considerably narrower. OpenAI is now leaning toward pushing its IPO into 2027, according to reports from June 25, turning what was supposed to be a coronation into a waiting game.

The trillion-dollar sticking point

Here’s the thing about OpenAI’s IPO ambitions. CEO Sam Altman has reportedly set a floor valuation of $1 trillion for the offering, calling anything below that “a nonstarter.”

Altman’s advisers appear to be presenting him with two paths. The first is waiting for more favorable market conditions and pursuing the IPO in 2027. The second is proceeding sooner but accepting a lower valuation. So far, the signals suggest Altman prefers patience over compromise.

What spooked the market

The tech selloff that hit in early June didn’t come out of nowhere, but its impact on AI valuations was particularly sharp.

One specific catalyst that reportedly rattled OpenAI’s planning was SpaceX’s volatile performance after its own IPO. When a company of SpaceX’s stature and brand recognition experiences turbulence in its first days of public trading, it sends a signal to other pre-IPO giants: the market might not be as forgiving as your last private funding round suggested.

The Anthropic factor

OpenAI isn’t the only AI giant eyeing the public markets. Anthropic, its most direct competitor in the large language model space, is simultaneously pursuing its own late-2026 IPO. That creates an unusual dynamic where two of the most prominent AI companies could be competing for investor attention and capital at roughly the same time.

If OpenAI delays to 2027 and Anthropic doesn’t, the competitive dynamics get interesting. Anthropic could establish a public market valuation benchmark that either helps or hurts OpenAI’s eventual pricing. A strong Anthropic debut would validate the sector and potentially make OpenAI’s $1 trillion ask easier to justify. A weak one would give investors even more reason to push back on Altman’s target.

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