OpenAI may delay IPO plans to next year: Report

OpenAI could push its initial public offering (IPO) to next year instead of listing in 2026. According to a New York Times report, the company is weighing whether to wait until 2027 for market conditions to improve rather than accept a lower valuation. Reuters reported that chief executive Sam Altman is unwilling to compromise on the company's valuation target, making a delay the more likely outcome.

The discussion comes just weeks after SpaceX's highly anticipated Nasdaq debut. SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 a share and opened at $150 before climbing past $225 in the days after listing. The rally, however, proved short-lived. The stock has since retreated to around $153 and suffered a 16.4% single-session decline on June 22, fuelling concerns that investors are becoming less willing to pay premium valuations for AI-linked companies.

OpenAI waits for markets to stabilise

For OpenAI, the challenge is not simply valuation but also the scale of capital it hopes to raise. "They're waiting for the markets to stabilise to get a better valuation. If they wanted a lower valuation, they could come with the IPO tomorrow itself. But they want to ensure the listing is a grand success without unnecessary volatility in the stock price," Kranthi Bathini, Director of Equity Strategy at WealthMills Securities, told Fortune India.

Bathini said the size of the proposed listing itself makes timing critical. "These are not small billion-dollar issues. Raising liquidity for a company targeting a $1 trillion valuation is a challenge in the current environment. That is one of the key reasons they are taking more time," he said.

He added that AI companies remain difficult for investors to value because much of their future earnings potential is still speculative. "These are futuristic business models. Valuing these companies is extremely difficult because the predictability of future earnings and opportunities cannot be captured accurately in a balance sheet," Bathini said.

The IPO discussions coincide with another development at OpenAI. Reuters reported that the Trump administration has asked the company to stagger the rollout of its latest model, GPT-5.6, citing national security concerns. Instead of a broad launch, OpenAI is expected to initially make the model available to a limited set of partners on a case-by-case basis.

OpenAI had confidentially filed for an IPO earlier this month with the SEC and had indicated it expected to go public within the next year.