OpenAI is preparing to file confidentially for a US initial public offering in the coming days or weeks.
That’s according to the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Reuters, all of which reported on Wednesday (May 20) that the ChatGPT maker is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on a draft IPO prospectus.
The company could file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission as soon as Friday (May 22), the reports said, with a public debut targeted for as early as September, according to the WSJ and Reuters.
OpenAI was last valued at $852 billion following a $122 billion funding round completed in March, making it one of the world’s most valuable startups.
The company says ChatGPT now has more than 900 million weekly active users and over 50 million consumer subscribers.
An OpenAI spokesperson told the New York Times: “As part of normal governance, we regularly evaluate a range of strategic options. Our focus remains on execution.”
The IPO push comes two days after a federal jury in Oakland, California, dismissed Elon Musk‘s lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, finding that Musk had brought his claims too late.
The jury deliberated for less than two hours, according to Reuters.
Musk – who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and invested $38 million in its early years – had accused Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman of betraying the company’s founding mission as a nonprofit by shifting it towards a commercial enterprise.
The resolution of the Musk lawsuit removed what multiple observers described as a significant obstacle to an IPO.
“Resolving that legal overhang removed a major obstacle to an IPO and likely gave OpenAI the confidence to accelerate its timeline,” IPOX Vice President Kat Liu told Reuters.
OpenAI recently restructured its corporate model. The company’s nonprofit foundation retains control, while its for-profit subsidiary has been converted into a public benefit corporation.
An OpenAI IPO filing would land at a time when the company is reportedly developing a generative AI music tool – one that could bring the $852 billion company into direct competition with platforms like Suno and Udio.
According to a report at The Information from October 2025, OpenAI has been working on a tool that can create music from text or audio prompts.
Sources told the publication that the tool could be used to add a soundtrack to a video, or to add instrumental accompaniment to a vocal track.
The company has been working with students at the Juilliard School of music, with the students annotating music scores to create training data, according to The Information.
It remains unclear when the tool will be released, or whether it will be a standalone product or integrated into ChatGPT.
This would not be OpenAI‘s first foray into AI music. In 2020, when the startup was still a nonprofit, it released Jukebox – a neural net that generated music, including rudimentary singing, as raw audio. The tool has since been discontinued.
The company has also secured a license from Shutterstock that includes access to the stock media company’s audio library for AI training purposes.
OpenAI‘s path to the public markets also carries unresolved copyright exposure from the music industry.
In November 2025, a court in Germany handed a landmark ruling against OpenAI in a case brought by GEMA, the German collecting society, finding that ChatGPT violated copyright laws through its unauthorized use of song lyrics.
The court ruled that OpenAI should have acquired licenses for German song lyrics in GEMA‘s repertoire before using them to train and operate ChatGPT.
The verdict marked the first time a European court had ruled in favor of creators whose works had been used by generative AI systems.
Separately, in February 2025, record companies in India – including Saregama, T-Series and the Indian Music Industry, which represents all three major label groups in the market – sought to join a copyright infringement suit against OpenAI being heard by a court in New Delhi.
The music companies said their allegations were “crucial for the entire music industry in India, and even worldwide,” according to a court filing seen by Reuters.
OpenAI‘s prospective entry into music generation arrives at a time when AI music platforms are already facing a wave of copyright litigation.
Suno and Udio – the two most prominent generative AI music platforms – were sued by the major record companies in June 2024 for alleged widespread copyright infringement in training their AI models.
Warner Music Group has since settled its lawsuit with Suno and struck a licensing deal with the AI music generator, while Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group have settled with Udio.
Universal’s lawsuit against Suno continues; Sony Music‘s lawsuits against both Suno and Udio remain active.
Any IPO prospectus filed by OpenAI would be expected to disclose the company’s pending copyright litigation, giving public investors their first detailed look at the legal risks attached to its AI training practices – including those relating to music.Music Business Worldwide
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