OpenAI preps IPO

OpenAI is talking like a company that wants to ring the bell on Wall Street soon, not someday. Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar said the company plans to set aside part of its initial public offering for ordinary retail investors instead of keeping the deal mostly for big funds and wealthy clients. (cnbc.com) That is unusual because hot technology listings often give the cheapest early shares to institutions, then let everyone else buy after trading starts. Friar said OpenAI wants broader ownership when it eventually goes public, which is a direct signal that an initial public offering is now part of the company’s plan. (cnbc.com) (reuters.com) The timing fits the company’s new scale. Friar told CNBC that enterprise sales now make up about 40% of OpenAI’s revenue, which means a large share of the business is no longer just people paying for ChatGPT subscriptions but companies buying tools for work. (cnbc.com) She also told investors to expect advertising to become a real business line, with about $2.5 billion in ad revenue projected for 2026. That would push OpenAI closer to the model used by large internet platforms: one business selling software to companies, another selling attention to advertisers. (cnbc.com) OpenAI has been moving toward public-market shape for months. On October 28, 2025, it said it had updated its structure so the original nonprofit became the OpenAI Foundation while the operating business continued in a for-profit arm governed by that mission-focused parent. (openai.com) That corporate plumbing matters because public investors want to know what exactly they would own. OpenAI says the nonprofit still guides the mission, but the commercial side is built to raise large sums of capital, which is the kind of setup you need before asking stock-market investors for even more money. (openai.com) (nbcnews.com) And OpenAI has already shown it can raise money at a scale that looks more like a sovereign project than a startup. CNBC reported on March 31 that the company closed a $122 billion funding round at an $852 billion post-money valuation, after first announcing a separate $40 billion round in March 2025 at a $300 billion valuation. (cnbc.com) (openai.com) Now the complication. On April 9, 2026, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said his office was opening an investigation into OpenAI and ChatGPT, adding a regulatory cloud just as the company is presenting itself as ready for broader ownership. (reuters.com) (wfsu.org) The Florida move appears tied to safety concerns after reporting that the accused gunman in the 2025 Florida State University shooting had used ChatGPT before the attack. Uthmeier said the probe would examine privacy, national security, and consumer-protection issues around the company’s operations. (reuters.com) (wfsu.org) So the picture is two stories arriving at once. OpenAI is telling investors it has the revenue mix, ad ambitions, corporate structure, and retail-investor pitch of a future public company, while regulators are reminding everyone that a business used by hundreds of millions of people will be judged like critical infrastructure, not a clever app. (cnbc.com) (openai.com) (reuters.com)