What the AI Startup IPO Wave Is Really About
An AI startup IPO is the moment when a privately funded artificial intelligence company lists its shares on a public stock exchange, opening itself to public investors, regular financial disclosures, and market scrutiny as it seeks long-term capital to scale data centers, research, and product distribution. The confidential S-1 filings from OpenAI and Anthropic, plus SpaceX’s plan to go public, signal that frontier AI investment is entering a new phase where large labs must prove they are not only technological leaders but also durable businesses. Their public offerings will test whether current AI company valuations near the trillion-dollar range can be supported by future earnings. For investors, this is a shift from backing closed, late-stage private rounds to judging quarterly results, margins, and cash burn in real time.
OpenAI’s Public Offering: Opening the Floodgates or Exposing the Risks?
OpenAI’s confidential IPO filing marks a turning point in frontier AI investment, moving the ChatGPT maker from private hype into public-market accountability. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said OpenAI’s filing shows “the floodgates for the IPO market are officially open,” framing the move as a race with Anthropic to raise large amounts of capital at scale. Commentators note multiple drivers: heavy spending on infrastructure, the need to reward employees holding equity, and the pressure to demonstrate that growth can “maintain its current aggressive pace through the next decade.” Gregory Allen of Decision Tree Research highlights that valuations in the ballpark of USD 1 trillion (approx. RM4.6 trillion) imply performance similar to “an annuity that kicks out USD 45 billion (approx. RM207 billion) a year every year forever,” raising questions about timing massive capital expenditures without running out of cash.
Perplexity IPO 2028: A Deliberate Counterpoint to the IPO Rush
Perplexity is taking a different path, committing to a Perplexity IPO 2028 regardless of how OpenAI and Anthropic perform once public. CEO Aravind Srinivas told CNBC the company had “planned for something in 2028,” independent of those larger peers, though he concedes “there will be ripple effects if they don’t go well.” This measured timeline suggests confidence in its AI-powered search engine model and in building a track record before facing public-market scrutiny. Perplexity, valued at USD 20 billion (approx. RM92 billion) after a recent funding round, is positioning itself not as a frontier model lab but as an orchestrator of models via its Comet browser and its “Computer” digital worker agent. Srinivas argues that welcoming competition in both frontier and local models can set Perplexity apart and “position us well to go for an IPO like one or two years down the line.”
Valuations, Profitability and Diverging Timelines
The different IPO timelines among OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX, and Perplexity highlight distinct responses to soaring AI company valuations and uneven profitability. Anthropic has reportedly reached profitability in a recent quarter, with revenues “ramping like nothing you’ve ever seen in history for a company of that size,” while filings show SpaceX posting a net loss of USD 4.28 billion (approx. RM19.7 billion) on revenue of USD 4.69 billion (approx. RM21.6 billion) in Q1. Yet SpaceX is pursuing a listing at roughly 110 times sales. Skeptics like Gary Marcus warn that only a narrow slice of buyers may accept such terms, while backers like Michael Fertik hope for a “gushing torrent of liquidity” that lets public investors join the AI moment. Against this backdrop, a 2028 target lets Perplexity avoid peak-exuberance risk and prove that its AI startup IPO rests on durable unit economics.
What These IPO Strategies Reveal About the Future of AI
Taken together, these AI startup IPO plans show a field testing whether frontier AI can translate technical breakthroughs into sustainable revenue. Fast movers like OpenAI and Anthropic want to capitalize on strong demand while funding massive model training and infrastructure, even as they may remain loss-making in the near term. More measured players like Perplexity appear focused on sharpening product-market fit and diversifying model sources before stepping into public markets. Success will depend less on headline valuations and more on convincing investors that AI products can command recurring revenue, healthy gross margins, and defensible moats in search, enterprise software, and digital agents. If early listings trade well and hit growth targets, more AI companies will follow; if not, Perplexity’s later 2028 window could look like the safer route to a stable AI public offering.
