OpenAI is leaning toward delaying its long-anticipated stock-market debut until 2027, according to a New York Times report dated June 25 that cited people involved in the company's internal deliberations. The reassessment is tied to recent volatility in technology stocks, which has rattled the advisers steering the offering, as reported by PYMNTS.com.
The stakes are large. According to reporting summarized by MSN, CEO Sam Altman is aiming for a roughly $1 trillion valuation and is working with Goldman Sachs on the listing. A delay would mean balancing those valuation ambitions against shifting market conditions, Stocktwits noted, with a 2027 timeline now described as "in play."
The news moved markets quickly. Bloomberg reported that shares of SoftBank, a major OpenAI backer, tumbled after the report, and Investing.com noted the same slide as word spread of a possible delay. Barron's reported that fears around OpenAI's IPO timeline also dragged down Oracle and other stocks seen as heavily exposed to the ChatGPT maker, and MarketWatch framed the timeline as a fresh worry feeding a broader tech selloff. Yahoo Finance linked the caution partly to a "scare" involving SpaceX.
Not everyone reads it as bad news. Benzinga reported that one shareholder argued a delay could actually be bullish, presumably giving the company more time to grow into its valuation. Meanwhile, MSN reported that rival Anthropic is preparing to list first, a notable twist in the race among leading AI firms to reach public markets.
It's worth stressing that these are reports of internal deliberations, not a confirmed decision, and timelines can shift again.
Why it matters: OpenAI has become a bellwether for the entire AI boom, so even a rumored slip in its IPO plans can ripple through the share prices of partners and rivals alike — a sign of how much of the market's optimism is now riding on a single private company.