OpenAI Weighs IPO in 2027

**SPEAKER_2** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news. Bloomberg Tech is live from the heart of Silicon Valley with Ed Ludlow in San Francisco.

**Ed Ludlow** (0:22)
This is Bloomberg Tech coming up. OpenAI may hold off on an IPO until next year, the new sending shares of SoftBank falling the most since August, 2024
Plus global tech stocks drop after Apple's hardware price hikes from a memory crunch to dampened consumer demand. Is the iPhone next? And SpaceX's $25 billion bond sale is off to a rocky start. Cracks show as paper losses mount.
It has been a bruising week for the AI trade, and memory has been at the heart of it. This Friday, Apple is rebounding, having dropped the most in 16 months on Thursday because it raised prices across hardware, excluding the iPhone. In part, that is because of higher memory prices. Micron is down significantly, and it surged Thursday because it's benefiting from such tight supply. Generally speaking, chip stocks are down. But overnight in Asia, there was basically a change of perspective in the market. It went from euphoria from those selling memory chips, to the idea that those buying them are under pressure, and that demand might be dampened in the end. You see that in SK Hynex and Samsung. We're going to go deep on that story later in the program. The big news story, OpenAI. Bloomberg reporting, OpenAI is looking at holding off until next year for an IPO. According to sources. That sunk shares of SoftBank overnight in Japan. And some disappointment seems reflected in the tech sector in today's trade. It's a bit circular, because Bloomberg reports current market conditions are one factor behind OpenAI being in no rush. Bloomberg's Bailey Lipscholtz, who leads our IPO coverage is with us. Look, I think OpenAI were pretty clear on June 8th, when they disclosed that confidential filing, that it would be a while anyway. Just bring us up to speed on what they're thinking is, and what we've reported.

**Bailey Lipscholtz** (2:09)
When you look back at that filing, to your point, they essentially, even with some of the verbiage coming from Sam Altman himself, looking at the next calendar year, which obviously includes one queue of next year, as well as two queue of next year, as you had reported just a few minutes ago, Ed, when you look at the expectations around OpenAI, it does seem like they're willing to concede to Anthropic going first. Obviously, from the Anthropic camp, that means setting the tone, setting the total addressable market, and setting evaluation expectations. Big question for OpenAI though, still centers around what their story is. Can they have confidence in some of these contracts and some of their obligations in the long term? Obviously, moving from, say, late four queue to early one queue is not a big deal, though it is a sign of what could lie ahead as we look at these mega IPO's in the wake of SpaceX. Again, a roaring success day one and day two. We've seen shares come back to earth, trading around where they opened in the company's debut, still above the IPO price, but still leading some retail investors who chase the stock in the red. The big question going forward, as you mentioned with things like SK Hynix, is what does the market look like months from now when these companies look to tap the market?

**Ed Ludlow** (3:18)
The way it was relayed to me is even if Anthropic goes first, that's not necessarily a negative for OpenAI. They can sit back and look how that goes as one perspective. We're showing shares of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley down pretty significantly, almost 4 percent each. Remind us the reporting that we've done on those banks' involvement in getting OpenAI and Anthropic ready for a listing.

**Bailey Lipscholtz** (3:38)
Yeah, we've reported that both are leading the charge on both deals, so that would likely bring a big payday. Again, fees weren't that high for the bankers leading the SpaceX IPO, but the big question to that point, Ed, becomes a debate around, do we see Anthropic in late 3Q, early 4Q? What does that mean for Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, especially when people have been excited about both of these deals coming to market, what that could mean broader? These are two companies that are going to need to raise a lot of money to continue to chase their dream of dominating the artificial intelligence. Boom, so it's not just IPO proceeds, it's not just fees from that potentially for OpenAI and Anthropic for the likes of a Morgan Stanley and a Goldman Sachs, it's what levers can they pull for raising cash through equity sales, through bonds in the public market? And those are two things that you need public equities to be trading to actually be able to tap.