OpenAI is requesting US government support to help guarantee financing for the massive investments in AI chips and data centers it needs for expansion

OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar said on Wednesday that the company is not planning to go public anytime soon, speaking on stage at the Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live conference.

“IPO is not on the cards right now,” Friar said. “We are continuing to get the company into a state of constantly stepping up into the scale we are at, so I don’t want to get wrapped around an IPO axle.”

OpenAI did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Just last week, Reuters reported that OpenAI had begun preparing for a possible initial public offering, one that could give the company a valuation of as much as $1 trillion.

Reuters previously noted—citing sources familiar with internal discussions—that Friar told some contacts the company was aiming for a 2027 listing, with advisers suggesting the IPO might occur sooner, potentially by late 2026.

Friar’s comments come shortly after OpenAI completed a sweeping corporate restructuring at the end of October, transforming its for-profit business into a public benefit corporation as part of its expanded agreement with Microsoft, which valued OpenAI at roughly $500 billion.

The new structure gives OpenAI more flexibility in how it operates, while ultimate control remains with its nonprofit parent, now known as the OpenAI Foundation. The foundation holds a 26% equity stake and has a warrant to obtain more shares if certain milestones are reached, which positions OpenAI to bring in new partners and attract additional investment.

OpenAI has significantly increased spending on data centers and has secured multibillion-dollar agreements with major tech firms such as Google (Alphabet) and Amazon. Friar said the company is exploring avenues for U.S. government assistance to help secure financing for AI chips, noting the uncertainty of their depreciation makes traditional debt financing expensive.

“This is where we're looking for an ecosystem of banks, private equity, maybe even governmental,” she said. “Any such guarantee can really drop the cost of the financing but also increase the loan-to-value.”