OpenAI is staying private (for now)

OpenAI is staying private for now — and it is not alone. The artificial intelligence company, which reportedly lost $39 billion in 2025, told investors it will not push to go public until it can "make confident safety decisions." Oura, the maker of health-tracking rings, is also holding off on its IPO. The decision by both companies reflects a broader shift in how fast-growing private firms finance themselves, and it raises a question: if you are not going to the stock market, where do you get the billions of dollars you need to keep operating?

Where the money comes from instead

For a startup, the traditional answer is venture capital. But for a company the size of OpenAI, venture capital alone is not enough. According to Jay Ritter, who directs the IPO initiative at the University of Florida, OpenAI has been raising money from major tech firms, sovereign wealth funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, and wealthy families — the same kinds of investors who would normally buy stock after an IPO. They are getting in early, and they like it that way.