OpenAI submits confidential IPO application, will initiate employee stock buyback and compete with Anthropic on Wall Street According to Beating monitoring, OpenAI announced that it has submitted a confidential IPO draft to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and plans to provide employees with a stock buyback channel for cash out in the coming weeks. OpenAI is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to prepare for an IPO, with the earliest listing date being this fall. OpenAI pointed out that the confidential submission draft can provide more flexibility, as some businesses are easier to conduct in a private company state, and the final listing time has not yet been finalized. OpenAI's move marks the official start of the Wall Street funding battle among the three tech giants with valuations approaching trillions of dollars. Just a week ago, competitor Anthropic also submitted a confidential IPO application and reached a valuation of $965 billion in its latest round of private equity financing, surpassing OpenAI's $852 billion for the first time. In addition, SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, plans to go public on Thursday with a target valuation of $1.8 trillion. With a large number of super unicorns flocking to the public market, investors' limited funds will face diversion pressure. Moving towards the open market will directly expose large model enterprises to scrutiny from the secondary market. In order to purchase chips and build data centers, big model research and development is spending astronomical amounts of money. OpenAI has previously revealed to investors that it plans to invest about $600 billion in AI infrastructure by 2030. Despite completing a record breaking $122 billion financing, OpenAI's cash burn rate remains extremely high. The Wall Street Journal pointed out that OpenAI is facing challenges such as failing to meet internal revenue targets and multiple executive resignations. CEO Sam Altman and CFO Sara Friar also have differences on the timeline for going public. Meanwhile, OpenAI is also exploring with the Donald Trump administration the possibility of the US government directly holding equity in the artificial intelligence laboratory. A few weeks before submitting the draft, the California court rejected Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman, clearing legal barriers to preparing for the IPO. [Original link]