Monday was a tale of two Sam Altman firms. One filed to go public at more than $800 billion.
The other is said to be cutting jobs.
OpenAI says it filed for an IPO in private. That is the early paperwork a firm sends before it sells stock to the public.
It does not lock in a date or a price. OpenAI was last valued at $852 billion.
The filing comes about a week after its top rival, Anthropic, made the same move. OpenAI says it has not set a timeline.
It can do some things more easily while it stays private. OpenAI even said it shared the news because it feared a leak.
The firm started back in 2015 as a nonprofit lab. It set off the AI boom when it launched ChatGPT in 2022.
Today it claims about 900 million weekly users. Still, 2026 looks like a huge year for tech debuts.
SpaceX is set to go public too. Its price tag is a reported $1.75 trillion.
We break down what these big IPOs mean for everyday investors in Market Briefs, and joining gets you a free investing masterclass.
Then there is Tools for Humanity. Altman chairs it, but most know it as World.
World is best known for a silver orb that scans your eyes. The pitch is simple.
Scan enough eyes and you can prove who is a real human online. Then you tie that ID to its crypto coin, Worldcoin.
That idea raised cash at a $2.5 billion value. Backers include big names like Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital.
A few US firms have signed on to use it, like Tinder, Zoom, and Docusign. But the firm is said to be shrinking as it works to earn real money.
Big vision, thin sales.
World's worst headaches have come overseas. It offered people in Kenya, India, and Hong Kong about $50 in Worldcoin.
In return, it wanted their eye scans. That offer did not land well.
Kenya banned World over privacy fears. South Korea fined the firm $830,000 for allegedly breaking its privacy laws.
Turns out most people don't want to hand their eyes to a startup for $50 in crypto.
The pushback has slowed World's spread abroad. New markets are harder to win now.
OpenAI is racing to market even as its costs run high. A recent report said it missed some of its own user and revenue goals.
Its finance chief has flagged worry about paying for huge data-center bills. Public buyers will have to weigh that spend against the hype.
The split screen tells one story in two parts. Raise huge sums on a bold promise, then race to prove it works.
OpenAI is asking the public to buy the promise. Its sister firm shows the bill comes due.
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