OpenAI is leaning toward delaying its initial public offering until 2027 rather than accept a lower valuation, according to a report in The New York Times, a sign that volatility in technology stocks is giving even the most prominent name in artificial intelligence reason for caution. The company has confidentially filed to go public and is targeting a valuation of as much as $1 trillion.
According to the report, advisers presented OpenAI's executives with two options: wait until 2027 to go public at the desired valuation, or lower the target in order to list sooner. Chief executive Sam Altman reportedly rejected the idea of cutting the figure, making clear that any reduction to the trillion-dollar goal was, in effect, a non-starter. The company's chief financial officer, Sarah Friar, has separately signaled a 2027 timeline to some associates.
Bankers advising on the offering cautioned that recent turbulence in tech shares — and the choppy aftermath of SpaceX's record-setting debut — could dampen the enthusiasm of retail investors for a deal of this size. A trillion-dollar valuation would rank among the largest ever sought by a newly public company, and pulling it off requires a market willing to pay a steep premium for future growth at a moment when investors are increasingly questioning the economics of AI.
The calculus is straightforward. A delayed debut would give OpenAI more time to strengthen its financial position and to convince investors that its rapid revenue growth can justify one of the highest valuations ever attached to a listing. Going out now, at a lower price, would mean locking in a number Altman appears unwilling to accept — and potentially signaling weakness in the very AI narrative OpenAI embodies.
The deliberations land against a darkening backdrop for technology stocks. A global selloff this week, fueled by worries over the soaring cost of AI data centers, has dragged down chipmakers and AI-linked shares from Wall Street to Seoul, and the report of OpenAI's potential delay itself weighed on sentiment. For a company whose fortunes are synonymous with the AI boom, the market's mood is not an abstraction but a direct input into when and how it can raise public money.
Complicating the picture is OpenAI's unusual relationship with Washington. The Trump administration has asked the company to stagger the rollout of its newest model over security concerns. Altman told employees that OpenAI would release its upcoming GPT-5.6 model through a limited preview for selected partners, with the government 'approving access customer by customer during this preview period' — an arrangement that underscores how entangled the company's commercial plans have become with national-security oversight.
OpenAI's path to the public markets has been closely watched as a bellwether for the entire AI sector. Its decision on timing will be read as a verdict on whether investors are still willing to underwrite the industry's enormous ambitions, or whether the period of paying any price for AI exposure is giving way to harder questions about returns.
For now, the company appears inclined to wait. Should it hold to a 2027 listing, OpenAI would buy itself time to let both its financials and the market mature — a bet that patience will be rewarded with the trillion-dollar debut Altman is determined not to discount.