OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees via Slack he expects an IPO "within the next year." The already filed prospectus was just about keeping "optionality if we want to go sooner." A slip to 2027 would surprise many, especially since Anthropic appears set to go public in the coming weeks.

Altman has good reason to wait: Anthropic's growth numbers look stronger, and OpenAI is still burning cash. Going public now risks losing valuation ground. Altman frames the delay differently, of course. Progress on self-improving AI could push back the IPO because "technology and the world may change in surprising ways, and there might be good reasons to be a private company during that time." Then again, the massive capital needs for compute infrastructure could speed things up, he said. Altman also announced an upcoming stock sale for employees at $687.69 per share.

OpenAI is preparing a new model codenamed 5.6, too. Research lead Jakub Pachocki calls it a big step up from GPT-5.5, with a possible June release. Anthropic has already set a high bar with Fable and Mythos 5.

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