The race to dominate artificial intelligence is taking a financial turn. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is reportedly preparing to go public in 2026 - and insiders say the listing could value the company at an astonishing $1 trillion.
According to three people familiar with the plans, the AI powerhouse may file its documents with U.S. regulators in the latter half of next year, aiming to raise around $60 billion in fresh capital. That would make it the most ambitious technology IPO since the dot-com boom, eclipsing even the market debuts of Meta and Alibaba.
Despite the buzz, OpenAI insists that timelines remain fluid. The company told Reuters that its priority continues to be the long-term development of artificial general intelligence, or AGI – technology capable of human-like reasoning and creativity. “We’re building something that will endure,” the firm noted, emphasizing mission over market timing.
From Startup to Superpower
OpenAI’s valuation trajectory has stunned even Silicon Valley veterans. Earlier in October, the company’s internal share sale catapulted its worth to $500 billion after employees offloaded $6.6 billion in stock to major institutional buyers. That figure placed OpenAI above Elon Musk’s SpaceX, now valued near $400 billion, and cemented its position as the world’s largest privately held startup.
The anticipated IPO would double that valuation, transforming OpenAI into a corporate titan rivaling Apple and Microsoft in scale – both of which are also major investors in the company.
Chinese AI Models Edge Out ChatGPT in Crypto Trading
Even as OpenAI dominates the financial headlines, its rivals are making progress in unexpected areas. A recent autonomous crypto-trading experiment stunned analysts after two Chinese chatbots – DeepSeek and Qwen3 Max – outperformed both ChatGPT and Grok, the AI model developed by X (formerly Twitter).
The results were clear: DeepSeek achieved a 9% positive trading return by October 22, while ChatGPT-5 trailed with a 66% loss, according to CoinGlass data. The twist? DeepSeek was trained for a fraction of OpenAI’s cost – only $5.3 million, compared to the $5.7 billion OpenAI spent on R&D during the first half of 2025.
Analysts Point to Data as the Key Differentiator
Crypto intelligence analyst Nicolai Sondergaard of Nansen believes the outcome reveals more about training quality than computing power. “When identical trading prompts lead to different results, the data behind the models tells the real story,” he explained, suggesting that better-tuned datasets could soon close the gap for Western AI systems like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
For now, OpenAI’s rumored trillion-dollar IPO underscores one truth: the AI revolution is no longer just a technological race – it’s a financial one, and the stakes have never been higher.
