Two Giants, One Very Different Timeline

The AI IPO race has produced more speculation than clarity so far in 2026. Anthropic confidentially filed its S-1 on June 1. OpenAI followed exactly one week later, on June 8. Both companies formally sit in the IPO queue. But the similarity ends there. Anthropic appears to be sprinting toward a 2026 listing. OpenAI has drifted toward mid-2027, with CFO Sarah Friar telling employees the company “will be a public company in 2027, if not sooner.” Understanding the AI IPO race requires separating genuine business fundamentals from the marketing hype surrounding both names, and this report walks through five numbers that matter most before any investor places a dollar.