OpenAI has filed confidential preliminary paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission, formally beginning the regulatory process required for an initial public offering. The move signals that the company behind ChatGPT is preparing for a potential Wall Street debut, though no specific timeline or target valuation has been announced publicly.

A confidential IPO filing, sometimes called a draft registration statement, allows companies to submit financial disclosures to the SEC for review before making them public. This process gives companies flexibility to gauge investor interest and refine their offering details without immediately exposing sensitive financial information to competitors or the public.

OpenAI has grown rapidly since the 2022 launch of ChatGPT, attracting billions of dollars in investment from Microsoft and other backers. The company has been valued in private funding rounds at well over $100 billion, making it one of the most highly valued private technology companies in the world. A public offering would provide liquidity for early investors and employees while raising additional capital.

The filing comes as OpenAI has also been undergoing a significant corporate restructuring, transitioning elements of its nonprofit governance structure toward a for-profit model — a change that generated considerable debate among AI researchers and policymakers. Going public would add further pressure to demonstrate consistent revenue growth and profitability to public shareholders.

The AI sector broadly has attracted intense investor interest, and an OpenAI IPO would likely be among the most closely watched market events in recent memory. Analysts expect the company to eventually make its full registration statement public ahead of any actual share offering, at which point detailed financial figures would become available.