As the artificial intelligence competition enters the "heavy asset" era, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has officially sent a clear signal: an initial public offering (IPO) has become the "most likely path" for the company's development. This statement not only opens a window for global investors to participate in the AI revolution but also reveals that this leading AI company is investing unprecedented capital and computing power to build the next generation of AI infrastructure.

IPO Is Not a Choice, But an Inevitability

In his recent speech, Altman admitted that as the business scale expands exponentially, OpenAI's need for funding has far exceeded what traditional venture capital can cover. "An IPO is the most logical way for us to raise funds in the future," he said. This strategic shift follows the company's major capital restructuring — now, OpenAI uses a hybrid structure of a non-profit parent company controlling for-profit subsidiaries, retaining mission-driven governance principles while paving the way for access to the capital market.

ChatGPT OpenAI Artificial Intelligence (1)

A $1.4 Trillion Infrastructure Bet, Computing Power as the Moat

Even more astonishing is the scale of OpenAI's investment in infrastructure. Altman revealed that the company has committed to investing about $1.4 trillion to build AI-specific infrastructure and plans to deploy over 30 gigawatts (GW) of computing capacity. For comparison, this is equivalent to the total output of 30 large nuclear power plants. More importantly, its goal is to add 1 gigawatt of computing power per week — this pace means that OpenAI is treating computing power as a core strategic resource, continuously supporting high-load applications such as GPT series model training, Sora video generation, and enterprise-level Agents.

The Backing of IPO: From Technological Leadership to Commercial Closure

Although OpenAI has not yet announced a specific IPO timetable, the progress of the IPO clearly aligns with its accelerated commercialization. From ChatGPT Enterprise to the Sora app store, and to the "Company Knowledge" feature deeply integrated with enterprise systems like Slack and Salesforce, OpenAI is rapidly building a sustainable revenue model. The IPO will not only provide it with long-term capital but also establish its leadership position in the global AI ecosystem through public market valuation.

It is worth noting that Altman emphasized that the IPO is not the end, but "a way to let more people participate in the future of AI." For public investors, this may be the first opportunity to directly invest in the forefront of general artificial intelligence (AGI).

With Microsoft, Google, and Meta all increasing their investments in AI infrastructure, OpenAI's choice of an IPO plus a heavy asset model to break through marks that AI competition has moved from algorithm innovation into a new stage of "computing infrastructure + capital endurance." This computing power arms race fueled by $1.4 trillion may completely reshape the future landscape of the technology industry.