OpenAI is an artificial intelligence (AI) organization seeking to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI). Few companies have taken the world by storm quite like OpenAI. The company's ChatGPT chatbot has become a viral sensation. It had amassed more than 500 million weekly users by mid-2025.
You can't invest directly in OpenAI -- at least, not right now. However, there are several ways to invest indirectly in the ChatGPT creator. You can also invest in companies that stand to benefit from the explosion in artificial intelligence (AI) that OpenAI has helped ignite.
In this article, we'll explain all you need to know about investing in OpenAI.
When will OpenAI IPO?
OpenAI didn't have any immediate plans to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) as of mid-2025.
The company reviewed an option to make going public a possibility. OpenAI's founders initially formed it as a non-profit organization, which controls its for-profit arm. While the company looked into restructuring its non-profit into a public benefit corporation (PBC), it opted against that plan. If the company goes that route in the future, it could go public. CFO Sarah Friar has stated that "A PBC gets us to an IPO-able event ... if and when we want to."
In addition to the company's structure, another factor reducing the need to go public is its ease in raising private capital from investors. Investors like Softbank and Microsoft (MSFT +0.40%) have poured billions of dollars into OpenAI. In early 2025, OpenAI raised a staggering $40 billion -- the largest amount of capital ever raised by a private tech company -- at a massive $300 billion valuation.
On top of those obstacles to an IPO, the company is concerned that listing its shares on a public stock exchange could limit its ability to develop AI fully. In particular, OpenAI has committed to developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) and AI superintelligence — technology that is self-aware and possesses intelligence that far exceeds that of the smartest human. Altman said, "When we develop superintelligence, we are likely to make some decisions that most investors would look at very strangely."
Is OpenAI profitable?
OpenAI doesn't release its financial statements, so we don't have access to details about OpenAI's earnings. However, The New York Times reported in late 2024 that the company wasn't profitable and was instead "burning through piles of money."
However, while OpenAI isn't yet profitable, it's growing its revenue briskly. The company's annualized revenue run rate hit $10 billion in June 2025, almost double from its December 2024 rate of $5.5 billion.
Meanwhile, the company isn't having any trouble raising the capital needed to fund its operations and expansion. Investors poured another $40 billion into OpenAI in early 2025, giving it fresh cash to build towards AGI.
Given the company's massive investments, it likely won't reach profitability for a while. That's something investors will need to keep an eye on before buying shares should OpenAI decide to complete an IPO.
Alternatives to OpenAI
The simple answer to how to buy OpenAI stock is that most investors can't do so right now. Accredited investors can sometimes buy shares on a secondary online marketplace, like EquityBee and Hiive. However, non-accredited investors can't invest directly in the company, and there's no timeline for when you might be able to do so.
There are a couple of alternatives to directly investing in OpenAI while it remains private.
Non-accredited investors can consider buying shares of a public venture capital fund, like the Fundrise Innovation Fund. That fund offers anyone the opportunity to invest in some of the top public companies (including OpenAI) at a low minimum investment (just $10) and low fees.
Meanwhile, the next best thing is to buy the stocks of other publicly traded companies investing in OpenAI or benefiting from its growth. Here are three stocks you can buy to indirectly invest in the ChatGPT developer's growth.
1. Microsoft
NASDAQ: MSFT
Key Data Points
The best way to invest in OpenAI is to buy shares of Microsoft. The technology giant originally invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019. It also teamed up with OpenAI to develop new AI supercomputing technologies for its Azure cloud platform. OpenAI moved its services to the Azure platform as part of the agreement. Microsoft also became OpenAI's preferred partner for marketing new AI technologies.
In 2021, Microsoft upped its investment in OpenAI. Then came the firestorm created by the launch of the AI chatbot ChatGPT in late 2022. Microsoft quickly realized the opportunity. In January 2023, the company confirmed that it extended its partnership with OpenAI into a third phase. A key component of the expanded collaboration was that Microsoft Azure would become OpenAI's exclusive cloud provider.
Microsoft didn't reveal exactly how much additional money it invested in OpenAI in its third round of funding. However, several reports indicated that Microsoft poured another $10 billion into OpenAI. Under the terms of the deal, Microsoft reportedly will receive 75% of OpenAI's profits until it recovers its full investment. After that point, Microsoft would own a 49% stake in the smaller AI developer.
In 2023, Microsoft aggressively integrated OpenAI's technology into its applications. Microsoft's Bing search engine uses GPT-4, the most advanced AI large language model (LLM) released by OpenAI so far.
Microsoft also introduced OpenAI technology into its Microsoft 365 productivity apps. The new feature, Microsoft 365 Copilot, helps users generate first drafts of documents in Microsoft Word and new presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint.
Copilot enables users to quickly analyze trends in Microsoft Excel and easily create high-quality data visualizations. It summarizes email threads and suggests replies to emails in Outlook. It summarizes discussion points in the Microsoft Teams business communications platform and recommends action items.
Of course, besides its ties with OpenAI, there are other reasons to consider investing in Microsoft stock. The company ranks as a leader in several hot technology areas beyond AI, notably cloud services, gaming, and quantum computing.
2. Meta Platforms
NASDAQ: META
Key Data Points
Social media giant Meta Platforms (META +3.23%) is going all-in on AI. The company is investing billions of dollars into five major AI opportunities: Improved advertising, more engaging experiences, business messaging, Meta AI, and AI devices.
Meta Platforms sees massive monetization opportunities across those opportunities. Meta AI is its internally developed AI chatbot, which has almost a billion monthly active users. The company also sees immense potential in AI devices, like smart glasses. It partnered with Ray-Ban to develop its popular Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses. With more than 1 billion people wearing glasses, the company believes that AI glasses could become a huge market over the next five to 10 years.
The company is also focused on building full general intelligence. The tech titan created its Meta Superintelligence Labs in mid-2025, hiring several prominent AI executives and researchers. The company's vision is to build "personal superintelligence for everyone."
Generative AI
3. Nvidia
NASDAQ: NVDA
Key Data Points
Nvidia (NVDA +2.05%) isn't a direct investor in OpenAI. However, the semiconductor stock is a major beneficiary of the AI megatrend.
The company experienced a massive acceleration in demand for its chips in 2023 as customers raced to capitalize on the AI gold rush. Nvidia's revenue skyrocketed 69% in its fiscal first quarter of 2026 to a record $44.1 billion, driven by record data center revenue (up 73% year over year to $22.6 billion). That surging revenue drove a stunning 73% increase in its earnings.
“Our breakthrough Blackwell NVL72 AI supercomputer — a ‘thinking machine’ designed for reasoning — is now in full-scale production across system makers and cloud service providers,” said CEO and founder Jensen Huang, in Nvidia's fiscal 2026 first-quarter earnings press release. He continued: “Global demand for Nvidia's AI infrastructure is incredibly strong. AI inference token generation has surged tenfold in just one year, and as AI agents become mainstream, the demand for AI computing will accelerate.”
ETFs with exposure to OpenAI
If you aren't comfortable picking individual stocks, you could invest in an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that focuses on AI and machine learning. Top AI ETFs include:
Should you invest in OpenAI?
Although there's no pure-play way to invest in OpenAI now, many long-term investors might want to consider indirect alternatives. In particular, buying shares of Microsoft could be a smart strategy to profit from OpenAI's technology. No other stock has a link to OpenAI as strong as Microsoft.
Generative AI, such as OpenAI's GPT-4.5, will likely be a game-changing technology. Global consulting firm McKinsey & Company predicts generative AI could have an economic impact of as much as $4.4 trillion annually. That amount is larger than the current gross domestic product (GDP) of all but three countries -- the U.S., China, and Germany.
Investors should also consider buying other AI stocks that could benefit from the generative AI boom. For example, Nvidia makes graphics processing units (GPUs) ideal for powering AI apps. Nvidia's GPUs could enjoy strong demand even if an OpenAI rival, such as AutoGPT, Anthropic, or xAI, ultimately achieves greater success. The downside to buying Nvidia is that huge growth expectations are already baked into its share price.
You could also look into buying stocks of companies that are using AI. Salesforce (CRM -0.13%), for example, integrated with OpenAI to develop Einstein GPT, which generates content for customer relationship management functions. Another possibility is Atlassian (TEAM +0.12%), which partnered with OpenAI to integrate generative AI into its products.
The bottom line
OpenAI definitely stands out as one of the leaders in generative AI. ChatGPT isn't likely to be a temporary fad. The power of OpenAI's technology could help usher in a new era where AI plays a much greater role in almost every aspect of society. Although you can't invest directly in OpenAI, you can buy the stocks of companies that stand to profit from its advances in AI.
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