US stock markets slipped after a report from Bloomberg said OpenAI is now seriously considering pushing back its initial public offering (IPO) to 2027, instead of going public in the earlier expected 2026 window. The news created nervousness in technology-heavy markets because OpenAI is widely seen as the most important private company in the global AI boom. The Nasdaq led the decline, while the S&P 500 and Dow also fell as investors reduced exposure to high-growth tech stocks.
Notably, the ChatGPT maker has already taken early steps toward a public listing, including a confidential filing of its IPO paperwork with US regulators, SEC, in June 2026. The company is reportedly planning a massive IPO that could value it at around $1 trillion, making it one of the largest listings in history.
However, advisers have warned that current market conditions may not support such a high valuation immediately. Because of this, OpenAI is weighing two main options — either go public earlier in 2026 at a lower valuation, or delay the listing to 2027 in order to strengthen financial performance and secure a higher valuation target.
The internal debate inside OpenAI reportedly shows a split between timing and valuation strategy. CEO Sam Altman is said to prefer maintaining the $1 trillion valuation target, even if that means waiting longer for public markets to stabilize. On the other hand, financial advisers and some executives have raised concerns that investor sentiment for high-priced tech IPOs has weakened after recent volatile market debuts of major technology companies. This includes caution around how newly listed AI or space-related firms have traded after going public, which has made underwriters more conservative about pricing mega-IPOs.
Market concerns are also linked to the heavy cost structure of AI companies like OpenAI. The company is spending extremely large amounts on computing power, advanced chips, and data centers needed to train and run large AI models. Recent estimates suggest OpenAI’s annualized revenue is in the range of $13 billion to over $20 billion, but its infrastructure costs run into billions each year.
The report also highlighted OpenAI’s private valuation history. In its latest funding round earlier in 2026, the company was valued at around $852 billion, with major backing from large investors including Microsoft, SoftBank, Nvidia, Amazon and others. Therefore, he jump toward a $1 trillion IPO target would represent a major leap in valuation within a short period, making timing and investor demand extremely important. Because of this, even a delay of one year to 2027 is being treated as a strategic move rather than a setback.
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Ashutosh is a Senior Writer at The Tech Portal, largely reporting on new tech, and intersection of technology and business. Ashutosh’s career spans across nearly a decade of technology writing across multiple platforms and languages.
