SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A top executive at OpenAI is pouring cold water on reports last week that the company was lining up a $1 trillion initial public offering. OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar, speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live conference, said that the company’s restructuring deal to go from a nonprofit to a for-profit entity did not signify the company was eyeing an IPO.
Instead, Friar said the leading artificial intelligence company would continue to prioritize growth over profit.
“IPO is not on the cards right now,” Friar reportedly said. “We are continuing to get the company into a state of constantly stepping up into the scale we are at, so I don’t want to get wrapped around an IPO axle.”
Previously, the Journal had reported the company could potentially go public on the stock market as early as 2027.
The artificial intelligence boom, which is largely centered in and around San Francisco, has directly, or indirectly, led to a surging stock market. But while AI-touching companies like Nvidia and Figma have reaped the benefits, very few of the big names in the AI space are currently traded publicly.
The excitement around a company like OpenAI going public reportedly fueled speculation that an IPO from the ChatGPT parent company could be valued at $60 billion on the low end and as high as $1 trillion on the high.
