NextFin News - OpenAI has entered discussions with Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase to join its underwriting syndicate for a planned initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter. The potential addition of two of Wall Street’s most powerful commercial lenders signals a broadening of the company’s financial strategy as it moves toward what could be the largest public market debut in history. The discussions follow a confidential S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 22, 2026, which set the stage for a listing that could value the artificial intelligence pioneer at between $852 billion and $1 trillion.
The inclusion of Citigroup and JPMorgan would bolster a lineup that already features Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in lead roles. While the final roster of banks has not been set, the move to engage a wider group of institutions reflects the sheer scale of the capital OpenAI may need to raise and the complexity of its transition from a non-profit-controlled entity to a public corporation. According to Bloomberg, the company is targeting a fourth-quarter 2026 debut, though some reports from Fortune and Axios suggest a listing could occur as early as September if market conditions remain favorable.
The financial stakes are unprecedented. OpenAI’s 2025 revenue base reached approximately $13.1 billion, yet the company continues to burn through cash at a staggering rate, with 2025 estimates placing the burn at $22 billion. This capital intensity, driven by the massive compute requirements of its latest models, makes the IPO a critical liquidity event. By bringing in JPMorgan and Citigroup, OpenAI gains access to deeper balance sheets and broader retail distribution networks, which may be necessary to absorb a multi-billion dollar share offering.
However, the path to the public markets is not without friction. Anthropic, OpenAI’s primary rival, is reportedly in talks to raise funds at a $900 billion valuation, a figure that would challenge OpenAI’s dominance in the private markets and potentially complicate its pricing power. Furthermore, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar has characterized the IPO preparations as "good hygiene" for a company of its size, but the internal shift toward a public-ready structure has been met with scrutiny regarding the company's governance and its ongoing relationship with Microsoft, which has invested over $100 billion in the partnership to date.
From a market perspective, the $1 trillion valuation target implies a revenue multiple of roughly 65x, a level that far exceeds traditional tech benchmarks. While the "AI halo" has sustained high valuations for Nvidia and other infrastructure providers, some analysts caution that OpenAI must prove it can narrow its losses as it scales. The current discussions with banks suggest that U.S. President Trump’s administration has maintained a regulatory environment conducive to large-scale tech listings, yet the sheer size of the OpenAI offering will test the depth of global investor appetite in the final months of 2026.
Explore more exclusive insights at nextfin.ai.
