OpenAI's path to the public markets appears to be getting longer. The company is reportedly considering delaying its IPO to 2027, with the timing shaped by one central issue: CEO Sam Altman is pushing for a $1 trillion valuation.
That target sits above OpenAI's last private valuation of $730 billion. According to the New York Times, citing three people involved in the discussions, advisors have presented Altman with a choice: go public in 2027 at the trillion-dollar price tag, or move sooner with a lower valuation. Anything below a trillion was rejected as a "nonstarter."
A bigger valuation means a slower IPO clock
OpenAI had originally targeted the third or fourth quarter of 2026 for its IPO and had already hired bankers and lawyers. The reported shift to 2027 suggests that the company is trying to align its market debut with a story investors will accept at a much higher price.
The issue is not only whether OpenAI can attract attention. It already sits at the center of the AI market. The harder question is whether public investors will support a $1 trillion valuation while the company is still spending heavily, remains unprofitable, and faces signs that ChatGPT user growth has stalled.
For an IPO, timing matters because public markets do not only price ambition. They also react to risk, recent examples, and investor appetite. Advisors are reportedly telling OpenAI that current conditions may not be favorable enough for the kind of debut Altman wants.
SpaceX changed the conversation
One reason advisors are urging caution is SpaceX's recent post-IPO performance. The rocket company carried out the largest IPO in history earlier this month, raising more than $85 billion and reaching a $1.77 trillion valuation on its first trading day.
Since then, its stock has fallen from a high of $202 to $153. That decline has given OpenAI's advisors a fresh example of how quickly enthusiasm can cool, even after a record-setting listing.
The broader technology market is also described as volatile. Investors are questioning whether AI companies can deliver on the high expectations already reflected in their valuations. According to the New York Times, advisors warned that retail investors may not show much enthusiasm right now.
That matters for OpenAI because a trillion-dollar IPO would need more than excitement around artificial intelligence. It would need confidence that the company's growth, business model, and future margins can support a very large public-market price.
The business case OpenAI wants to show
OpenAI has been working to strengthen the enterprise side of its business. In late 2025, CFO Sarah Friar had said the company was not pursuing an IPO and was focused on its finances. Since then, OpenAI cut side projects like the video generator Sora and began building a sales team around Codex, its coding product, as it competes with Anthropic's Claude Code.
The company's B2B push was described in a recent conversation between THE DECODER and Arnaud Fournier, CTO of the new subsidiary DeployCo. Fournier said Codex now has more than four million weekly users worldwide, a fivefold increase in three months.
He also pointed to major investments in OpenAI's own compute infrastructure and described DeployCo's engineers as a way to embed models deeply into enterprise workflows. Those details help explain the story Altman may want to take to investors: OpenAI is not just a consumer AI company, but a business platform expanding into corporate software and operations.
That argument is important because OpenAI's financial picture remains demanding. The company brought in about $13 billion in revenue in 2025 and wants to triple that this year. It is still not profitable and continues to spend heavily on data centers.
ChatGPT user numbers have also stalled at around 900 million, short of the billion mark the company had expected. For a public offering, that mix creates tension: rapid revenue growth and enterprise ambition on one side, heavy losses and slower user growth on the other.
SoftBank feels the market reaction first
The reported IPO delay had an immediate impact on SoftBank, one of OpenAI's biggest backers. Bloomberg reported that SoftBank's stock fell 13 percent, its steepest drop since August 2024.
SoftBank's investment in OpenAI is set to reach about $65 billion by October. Expectations around a possible OpenAI IPO had recently helped push SoftBank's market cap above Toyota's.
For SoftBank, an OpenAI listing would do more than create a potential exit. It would also establish a transparent market price for a large part of its holdings. Hiroki Takei, a strategist at Resona Holdings, told Bloomberg that this could shrink the typical conglomerate discount on SoftBank's stock.
"News of an IPO delay naturally dampens those expectations," Takei said.
That reaction shows how closely OpenAI's IPO timeline is tied to investor expectations beyond OpenAI itself. A delay affects not only the company and its bankers, but also major backers whose own valuations now depend in part on how the market prices the AI leader.
What the delay would signal
If OpenAI waits until 2027, the move would suggest that management wants a stronger setup before facing public-market scrutiny. The company would have more time to build its enterprise business, expand Codex, pursue revenue growth, and try to make the $1 trillion case more convincing.
But the delay would also underline the pressure around AI valuations. OpenAI is trying to enter the public markets at a moment when investors are watching losses, infrastructure spending, user growth, and examples like SpaceX's post-IPO slide.
The central question is simple: can OpenAI turn its position in AI, its enterprise expansion, and its revenue trajectory into a public-market valuation of $1 trillion? For now, advisors appear to think the answer may be stronger in 2027 than in 2026.