By Echo Wang, Kenrick Cai, Deepa Seetharaman and Krystal Hu SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -OpenAI is laying the groundwork for an initial public offering that could value the company at up to $1 trillion, three people familiar with the matter said,

Sam Altman said that shares of OpenAI were in demand, and that the company was making a "bet" and "taking a risk along with that."

Wall Street is licking its chops at the mere prospect of an OpenAI IPO, which could unleash a financial frenzy with little precedent if and when it arrives. Why it matters: A stock offering — potentially two years away — is driven by necessity.

In late 2024, OpenAI, still recovering from the aftershock of the brief, messy ousting of Sam Altman, initiated what it hoped would be a relatively straightforward process of converting to a more traditional for-profit business that would be more appealing to investors.

OpenAI has been laying the groundwork for an initial public offering (IPO) of up to $1 trillion, according to a Reuters report. This could be one of the biggest IPOs of all time.

The IPO preparations follow a restructuring of OpenAI completed on October 28 that reduced the company’s reliance on Microsoft, which has committed to investments of $13 billion and now owns about 27 percent of the company. OpenAI was most recently valued around $500 billion in private markets.

OpenAI is fueling Wall Street excitement with ambitions for a $1 trillion IPO amid the ongoing AI boom, as recent reports highlight the company’s potential shift toward public markets. This speculation has sparked a broader frenzy in the tech sector,

OpenAI eyes $1T IPO as ETH fees hit pennies. Here’s why the DeepSnitch AI presale is the best crypto to buy now for moonshot potential.