Julian Zhu, the Managing Partner at GSR Ventures, shared his perspective on the 'An Unfinished Promise' show, suggesting that it might be premature and perhaps even unnecessary for OpenAI to go public at this stage. He noted that, for OpenAI, securing funds in the primary market is relatively straightforward, and that a financing round valuing the company at 300 billion yuan could potentially see an oversubscription scenario. OpenAI has set its sights on submitting its listing application as early as the latter half of 2026, with the official public debut slated for 2027. The anticipated IPO valuation hovers around the staggering figure of 1 trillion US dollars, with the company aiming to raise a minimum of 60 billion US dollars.
Founded in 2015 as a non-profit entity, OpenAI underwent a transformation in 2019 by establishing a for-profit subsidiary. This year, in October, Microsoft threw its weight behind OpenAI's move to further develop its for-profit arm and undergo capital restructuring.
Furthermore, Julian Zhu highlighted that among the Chinese models that can be considered on par with OpenAI are Doubao, Qianwen, and Lingguang. He expressed particular admiration for Doubao and observed that Alibaba is just beginning to make significant inroads into the consumer market.