- OpenAI has discussed adding Citigroup and JPMorgan to its IPO underwriting lineup, Bloomberg reported on May 29.
- The additions would extend the existing Goldman Sachs + Morgan Stanley lead-banker pairing.
- OpenAI is targeting a September 2026 IPO at a valuation expected to materially exceed the $852 billion private mark from the March 2026 Series G.
- Anthropic’s $65B Series H announced May 28 at a $965B valuation provides immediate competitive context.
What Happened
OpenAI has discussed adding Citigroup and JPMorgan to its IPO underwriting bank lineup, Bloomberg reported on Friday. Specific allocation roles (joint book-runner, co-manager) and discussion timing are detailed in the paywalled Bloomberg article.
Why It Matters
The bank-lineup expansion is a procedural signal that OpenAI’s IPO preparation is in active execution mode. Adding Citigroup and JPMorgan to a Goldman Sachs + Morgan Stanley lead would create a four-bank top-tier lineup typical of mega-IPOs at the scale OpenAI is anticipating. The most directly comparable recent precedent — Saudi Aramco’s 2019 IPO — used a similar four-to-six bank top-tier lineup.
The discussion lands the day after Anthropic announced a $65 billion Series H at a $965 billion valuation — within 4% of OpenAI’s $852 billion post-Series G mark. The race between the two companies for the larger IPO is now down to single-digit-billion-dollar margins, and the bank-lineup decisions on both sides will shape the institutional-investor distribution.
Technical Details
Bloomberg’s report is paywalled; specific allocation percentages, named bankers leading the OpenAI relationships at Citi and JPMorgan, and timing detail are presented in the article. The TechCrunch reporting earlier this week confirmed Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as the existing lead-banker pairing. The September 2026 IPO target gives the underwriters about four months from lineup-finalization to first trading day.
OpenAI’s October 2025 secondary share sale produced 75 multimillionaires who each cashed out the $30 million cap (totaling $6.6 billion across 600+ participants). Microsoft has separately disclosed it targeted a $92 billion return on its early OpenAI investments. The IPO valuation needs to clear the $852 billion private mark to deliver positive returns to most current investors; institutional-investor demand allocation will determine where it actually prices.
Who’s Affected
Citigroup and JPMorgan gain access to one of the largest tech-IPO underwriting fees of the year. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley face dilution of their lead-banker roles but retain the originating relationship. OpenAI’s investor consortium (Microsoft, SoftBank, Nvidia, Sequoia, Thrive Capital, Tiger Global, sovereign wealth funds) gains institutional-distribution depth through more bank relationships. Anthropic’s bank-lineup decisions will be the immediate competitive watchpoint. Other AI companies anticipating IPOs (Cognition, xAI, Mistral) face precedent for how the top-tier US banks compete for AI mandates.
What’s Next
Bloomberg’s report does not specify when the Citigroup and JPMorgan discussions will close. Expect formal underwriting-mandate disclosures with named bookrunners in coming weeks ahead of the September IPO target. Anthropic’s bank-lineup decisions for any future public listing will be among the most-watched competitive signals.
