The S-1 arrived at the SEC on June 8, 2026 — one week after Anthropic's. The symbolism was not lost on anyone who has followed this rivalry. OpenAI, the company that invented the modern AI race, filed second.

The structural problem is not the revenue. At $25 billion in annualised revenue, OpenAI is a serious business. The structural problem is what happens to that revenue number when it goes through a GAAP accounting exercise. CFO Sarah Friar has guided to $14 billion non-GAAP losses for 2026. The GAAP number, accounting for stock-based compensation and restructuring costs from the non-profit to public benefit corporation conversion, is estimated at $25-26 billion. Public market institutional investors will see that number and reprice accordingly.

Then there is Apple. The trade secrets lawsuit filed in July 2026 created what securities lawyers call a material disclosure obligation — meaning it must be disclosed in the S-1, prominently, as a risk factor. Active litigation of this scale, from a company with $162 billion in cash and a litigation team that does not bluff, is not a footnote. It is a chapter.

The FreeMalta read: OpenAI follows Anthropic by roughly one quarter — late Q1 2027 at the median. The $1 trillion floor is Altman's public position, not necessarily what the bankers are modelling. Day one will be strong. Ninety days later is the real test.