Most mega-billion dollar IPOs work the same way. Big institutions grab the shares, and regular investors get leftovers - if they get anything at all. OpenAI wants to change that.
The company's CFO Sarah Friar said OpenAI will "for sure" reserve some of its IPO shares for retail buyers.
Friar's reasoning is straightforward: "It has to be that everyone partakes, that it isn't just that a very small group, and everyone else gets left behind."
The company tested the waters by opening its latest funding round to individuals and saw "really strong demand" - more than $3 billion from retail investors alone.
That round valued OpenAI at $852 billion after raising a record-breaking $122 billion. An IPO could push the valuation to $1 trillion - one of the most valuable public offerings in history.
Think of it this way: OpenAI is building AI that affects everyone's life. Friar's argument is that everyone should have a chance to own a piece of it.
OpenAI expects to file with securities regulators as soon as the second half of 2026. If they follow through on the retail allocation, it would set a precedent for how mega-cap tech companies go public.
Most IPOs reserve single-digit percentages for individual investors. A big retail allocation would be a major shift.
The actual IPO pricing and allocation will tell us whether this promise holds up. Wall Street firms that underwrite IPOs have historically pushed for larger institutional allocations because big buyers are easier to manage.
If OpenAI sticks to retail first, it could reshape IPO conventions.
