CNBC’s David Faber used a recent Squawk on the Street segment to push back against a New York Times report suggesting OpenAI’s IPO plans had changed. According to Faber, the bigger issue is that many investors assumed a 2026 IPO was already locked in, even though there has never been much evidence that was the company’s timeline.
Why an OpenAI IPO May Still Be a Ways Off
According to Faber, he was never led to believe an OpenAI IPO was “absolutely a 2026 event.” Faber said that when he spoke with Sam Altman a few weeks earlier, the CEO conveyed no particular urgency about a public listing. Faber also flagged the structural reality that companies like OpenAI can’t just flip a switch and trade publicly.
He noted that neither OpenAI nor Anthropic has fully built out the financial, communications, and compliance teams needed to operate as a public company, which in his view makes even a late-2026 debut ambitious.
Faber Questions the SpaceX Comparison
Faber also discussed the New York Times’ comparison between OpenAI’s IPO plans and SpaceX’s recent stock performance. He said he did not see an obvious connection between the two, noting that it wasn’t clear why SpaceX’s share price would meaningfully influence OpenAI’s decision about when to go public.
More broadly, newly public companies often experience volatile trading after their debut, and AI-related businesses have been no exception. Whether recent market performance ultimately factors into OpenAI’s timeline is something only the company’s leadership and board can determine, but Faber said it was not a relationship he had previously heard emphasized.
Anthropic Complicates OpenAI’s “Market Leader” Story
Faber’s reporting also undercuts a key premise of the IPO speculation. He noted that Anthropic’s 2026 revenue run-rate now exceeds OpenAI’s, driven by enterprise adoption and cloud-based coding tools. That shift complicates the “dominant frontier lab racing to list” framing, because the company most often described as OpenAI’s chief rival is, on at least one important metric, ahead.
The competitive landscape is further layered by regulation. Faber pointed to U.S. government restrictions on Anthropic’s release of its “Fable” model, a constraint that bears on how quickly Anthropic can convert its enterprise lead into durable revenue. For context on industry pricing dynamics, Wells Fargo strategist Ohsung Kwon has separately warned that rising AI token costs could “threaten the current AI market rally.”
OpenAI’s Funding Position
One reason Faber sees little urgency is that OpenAI is well-funded. He cited that the company raised $122 billion in late 2025. Private market demand has continued to validate elevated valuations. SuRo Capital principal Willy Lee, speaking to Benzinga, argued that an IPO delay could be a positive signal, suggesting, “This private market strength and rapid revenue growth in AI companies provide OpenAI with flexibility on when and at what valuation to go public.” Anthropic, for its part, reportedly filed a confidential S-1 on June 1, 2026, at a $965 billion valuation.
What to Watch Next
OpenAI still appears likely to become a public company at some point, but Faber’s comments suggest investors should avoid reading too much into any single report about when that might happen. Based on his recent conversations with Sam Altman and his understanding of the company’s progress, there is little indication OpenAI is rushing toward an IPO.
For investors, the more meaningful signals will be operational rather than speculative. As OpenAI builds the financial, compliance, and communications infrastructure required of a public company, the path toward an eventual listing should become clearer.
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