OpenAI’s chief financial officer Sarah Friar said that a public listing is not imminent, despite earlier speculation about a potential initial public offering (IPO) in the coming years.
Speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live conference in California, Friar said that an IPO is “not on the cards” for the company in the near term.
She highlighted that OpenAI’s current priorities are growth, research, and expansion rather than immediate profitability or a public listing.
“IPO is not on the cards right now,” Friar said. “We are continuing to get the company into a state of constantly stepping up into the scale we are at, so I don’t want to get wrapped around an IPO axle.”
OpenAI has previously been reported to be considering a public offering as early as 2026 or 2027, with valuations speculated to reach up to $1 trillion.
However, Friar said that the company is focused on building a durable business model and advancing its mission in artificial general intelligence (AGI), rather than rushing to go public.
The company is also seeking government support to help facilitate large-scale investments in AI infrastructure, particularly data center chips. The uncertain depreciation rates of these AI chips make it more expensive for companies to secure debt financing, and OpenAI is exploring ways that federal guarantees could reduce costs and improve financing terms.
“This is where we’re looking for an ecosystem of banks, private equity, maybe even governmental, the ways governments can come to bear,” Friar said. “Any such guarantee can really drop the cost of the financing but also increase the loan-to-value, so the amount of debt you can take on top of an equity portion.”