OpenAI Reportedly Planning IPO by Year-End at Valuation Approaching $1 Trillion, ChatGPT Must Capture More Enterprise Customers

OpenAI is actively preparing for an IPO, with reports suggesting it could officially launch as early as the end of this year. The company aims for a valuation of up to $1 trillion, with annual revenue already reaching $25 billion. Under the intense competition in the enterprise market, ChatGPT’s positioning is undergoing a critical shift.
(Background: Completing “profitability restructuring” to pave the way for IPO, the AI boom is coming?)
(Additional context: The biggest IPO wealth creation wave in history is about to begin: SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic leading the charge)

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• Growth roadmap from $20 billion to $620 billion
• Commercialization challenges with 900 million users
• Key prerequisites for IPO: high gross margin, sustainability

OpenAI’s countdown to IPO seems to have officially started. According to CNBC’s report last night (17th), the company plans to submit its listing application as early as Q4 2026, aiming for a public listing in 2027, with a valuation potentially reaching $1 trillion.

In a recent funding round, OpenAI’s pre-money valuation was already at $740 billion. After raising an additional $110 billion, the total valuation has climbed to over $840 billion, just a step away from entering the trillion-dollar club.

Growth Roadmap from $20 Billion to $620 Billion

Typically, a company’s financial performance before an IPO is the market’s primary focus. By February 2026, OpenAI’s annualized revenue had reached $25 billion, continuing to grow from $20 billion at the end of 2025. The company’s internal targets are: $30 billion for 2026 and further soaring to $62 billion in 2027.

If this growth curve can be realized, it will provide the fundamental support needed for OpenAI’s high valuation. However, the biggest challenge remains: how to demonstrate revenue sustainability and high gross margins to investors before the IPO.

Commercialization Challenges with 900 Million Users

Since launching ChatGPT in 2022, the platform has surpassed 900 million weekly active users, a remarkable milestone in tech history. But a large user base does not automatically translate into strong monetization. Free users generate traffic, but revenue depends on converting them into paying customers.

This is the core mission for Fidji Simo, CEO of OpenAI’s application division. She told CNBC that the company is focused on helping enterprises and actively shifting toward high-productivity use cases, aiming to “convert these 900 million users into high-paying computational users.”

Behind this transformation lies a clear financial logic: enterprise customers pay much higher per-unit prices than individual consumers, with stronger stickiness and higher renewal rates—precisely the “predictable recurring revenue” that IPO investors favor.

However, competitive pressures are also significant. Google, with its Workspace ecosystem, has been deeply cultivating enterprise clients for years. Anthropic is also evaluating its own IPO path, both vying for a share of the corporate AI market. OpenAI must demonstrate, through actual enterprise customer numbers and contract scales, why it is the right choice before going public.

Key Prerequisites for IPO: High Gross Margin and Sustainability

For capital markets, the valuation logic for AI companies differs from that of typical growth stocks: investors are willing to assign high multiples, but only if they see room for gross margin improvement, not just revenue expansion.

Currently, OpenAI’s computational costs remain substantial, with each conversation consuming significant GPU resources. To justify a $1 trillion valuation, Fidji Simo’s productivity tools strategy must deliver concrete results within this year: higher paid user ratios, deeper enterprise integration, and clearer unit economics.