Altman plays – Sam Altman said the AI race to Wall Street is less about beating rivals on timing and more about delivering technology and building the business. His comments came hours after Anthropic confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering, as OpenAI a
On Monday, the AI IPO conversation moved faster than usual—after Anthropic disclosed that it had confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering.
Hours later, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tried to cool the temperature of the moment. Speaking on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” show, Altman downplayed the idea that the industry’s biggest players are locked in a timetable race for going public.
“I think there is a race to deliver the best technology, build the best business, but you know, going public is a financing event, and I don’t think that’s one that we’re focused on the timing of,” Altman told journalist David Faber during the broadcast on Monday.
In practice. a confidential IPO filing usually comes about six to nine months before a company hits public markets. making Anthropic’s move a milestone in what could become one of the most closely watched IPO waves in tech history. Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, and it has recently reached a valuation of nearly $1 trillion.
The company has emerged as OpenAI’s most formidable rival, largely tied to the popularity of its coding product, Claude Code. OpenAI is not standing still: Business Insider previously reported that OpenAI has been preparing for an IPO and is targeting a public debut later this year.
Altman also pushed back on the idea that the AI world will eventually crown a single dominant winner. When Faber asked whether there would be a winner-takes-all situation in AI, Altman responded: “I’m confident it will not be, yeah.”
“I think the world will demand — this is going to be such critical infrastructure for so many things that the world will rightly demand robustness in the system of multiple providers. I think it’s a very good thing.”
The public-market timing crunch isn’t limited to just one rivalry. Alongside Anthropic and OpenAI. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is also expected to pursue a public offering soon—setting the stage for three mega-IPOs that could reshape public markets and give everyday investors direct exposure to some of the most valuable private companies in the AI boom.
Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Taken together. the facts land with a kind of inevitability: Anthropic has filed confidentially for an IPO. OpenAI is preparing for one later this year. and SpaceX is also expected to move toward public markets—while Altman insists the defining competition is over technology and business-building. not the calendar.
Sam Altman OpenAI Anthropic IPO initial public offering Claude Code SpaceX AI industry CNBC Power Lunch Wall Street tech IPO wave