Investing in OpenAI: how to get exposure to ChatGPT in 2026?

OpenAI, the San Francisco-based company behind ChatGPT, is not publicly traded; therefore, it is currently impossible to buy OpenAI shares directly on a regulated market. For individual investors looking to gain exposure to this global leader in artificial intelligence, the path currently lies through indirect channels: shares of publicly traded AI-related companies like Microsoft, Nvidia, or Amazon, or specialized secondary market vehicles ahead of a potential OpenAI IPO, which has been discussed for 2027 but lacks a confirmed date or final valuation.

This page details the main indirect investment options, the company's valuation and structure, the influence of its shareholders and board of directors, sector-specific risks, and the key milestones to watch if an OpenAI IPO materializes, along with essential tips for diversifying a portfolio with AI-related companies.

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Can you buy OpenAI shares today?

No, not directly. OpenAI, founded in 2015, remains a private company: its shares are not traded on any stock exchange, and no retail broker can sell you an OpenAI share in the strict sense of the term. Any offer promising a "simple and direct" purchase of OpenAI shares for a few hundred euros should be a red flag; it necessarily relies on an indirect arrangement that must be understood before signing.

Why OpenAI is not publicly traded

A company remains private as long as it can raise capital from institutional investors without being subject to the transparency requirements of a public company: quarterly financial reporting, exposure to short-term market fluctuations, and immediate dilution of control. OpenAI has raised tens of billions of dollars from sovereign wealth funds, tech giants, and venture capital firms, allowing it to finance its growth without going through the stock market. However, the company has already confidentially filed for an IPO in the United States.

What the transformation into a Public Benefit Corporation changes

On October 28, 2025, OpenAI completed a major legal reorganization: the hybrid capped-profit non-profit structure gave way to OpenAI Group PBC, a Public Benefit Corporation, which also changes its governance model. The OpenAI foundation retains approximately 26% of the capital, Microsoft approximately 27%, with the remaining 47% held by employees and other investors. This two-tier governance—a foundation overseeing a public benefit corporation—is a specific detail to understand before considering the value of an OpenAI security, as is the respective influence of shareholders and the board of directors on future decisions.

Source: CNBC, "OpenAI completes restructure, solidifying Microsoft as a major shareholder" (October 28, 2025), https://www.cnbc.com.

How much is OpenAI worth in 2026?

OpenAI's valuation has multiplied several dozen times since its inception in 2015, driven by increasingly massive fundraising rounds. At the end of March 2026, the company closed a $122 billion funding round, valuing it at $852 billion—the largest fundraising ever completed by a private company. This round was led by Amazon ($50 billion), Nvidia, and SoftBank ($30 billion each), with an additional $3 billion contributed by individual investors through dedicated vehicles. A portion of Amazon's commitment, $35 billion, is contingent upon an effective IPO or the achievement of a technological milestone in artificial general intelligence.

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This growth is explained by rising revenue—approximately $13.1 billion for the full year 2025 and a monthly run rate exceeding $2 billion in early 2026—but also by significant infrastructure spending. To date, OpenAI is not profitable and continues to burn more cash than it generates.

Source: CNBC, "OpenAI closes funding round at an $852 billion valuation" (March 31, 2026), https://www.cnbc.com.

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When will OpenAI's IPO take place?

No date has been set. OpenAI initially aimed for a potential listing as early as the second half of 2026, before internal deliberations shifted the timeline toward 2027. CEO Sam Altman reportedly dismissed any IPO valuation below $1 trillion, labeling it internally as unacceptable, while CFO Sarah Friar indicated to teams that OpenAI would be "a public company in 2027." OpenAI confidentially filed an S-1 form with the SEC, publicly confirmed on June 8, 2026, but neither the final schedule, the listing venue, nor the valuation range has been determined at this stage of the process.

Source: The Motley Fool, "OpenAI's IPO Won't Likely Happen Until 2027. Here's Why That's the Right Call." (August 25, 2026), https://www.fool.com.

For an individual, this uncertainty has two consequences: the potential entry price remains unknown, and initial access to a highly anticipated IPO is generally reserved for institutional investors before the stock becomes truly accessible to the general public. The official IPO timeline therefore only covers a portion of the actual access steps for an individual investor.

What access routes are available to individuals before the IPO?

In the absence of a public listing, three categories of solutions currently coexist, each with very different levels of risk and transparency.

Indirect exposure via publicly traded companies

The simplest way is to buy shares of publicly traded companies that hold a stake in OpenAI or benefit from its growth: Microsoft, which has invested over $13 billion in OpenAI and holds approximately a 27% stake, or Nvidia and Amazon (approximately 5% of capital for its $50 billion commitment), both recent investors and key suppliers of computing infrastructure. The advantage is the ease of access via a standard brokerage account or tax-advantaged account, with the liquidity of a regulated market. The disadvantage is dilution: OpenAI represents only a fraction of the total business and valuation of these groups.

The private secondary market: what you need to understand before entering

Some platforms offer access to the capital of unlisted companies via SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) structures, which purchase existing shares from historical shareholders or employees during sales organized by the company itself. By subscribing, the investor generally obtains no direct shareholder rights, no voting rights, and no access to detailed financial information. They are buying a share of a fund that itself holds the securities. Liquidity is virtually non-existent before an exit event, and this type of capital entry remains primarily intended for experienced investors.

Derivatives: exposure without ownership

Other instruments, such as contracts for difference (CFDs), allow you to "trade" synthetic exposure to the estimated price of an unlisted stock, with performance that also tracks market sentiment and, more broadly, the stock markets. These products do not involve any actual ownership of the underlying security: the investor bets on a price change, often with leverage, through a broker who becomes their direct counterparty. The risk of loss can exceed the capital invested, and the price reference used for an unlisted and illiquid asset like OpenAI remains difficult to verify independently, especially since several factors can distort the estimate used.

SUMMARY TABLE comparing ways to access the OpenAI ecosystem:

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Indicative comparison. Characteristics vary by vehicle and manager. All investments carry a risk of capital loss.

What are the risks of an investment linked to OpenAI?

Beyond the choice of vehicle, several risks are specific to OpenAI and, more broadly, to the major players in generative artificial intelligence.

The first is profitability: OpenAI is not profitable, and its capital requirements for computing infrastructure remain substantial, exposing it to the need for further fundraising, with a potential dilution effect. The second is valuation: a company valued at several hundred billion dollars based on growth expectations already has a lot of good news priced in, which is a major reason for caution. The third is competition: several laboratories with comparable resources, including Google and Meta, are developing rival models in a sector driven by automation and language processing where technological leads can vanish quickly. The fourth is regulatory, as the framework for AI is evolving rapidly. The fifth, specific to private equity access vehicles, is illiquidity: without an organized market, selling your position before an exit event is often impossible or highly unfavorable.

Source: AMF, guide "Learning about private equity funds (FCPR, FCPI, FIP)" (2023), https://www.amf-france.org.

Should you bet on OpenAI alone or on the entire AI ecosystem?

Concentrating exposure on a single company, however promising, means betting on its individual trajectory: governance, technological choices, ability to raise funds, and competitive positioning. The performance gap between the best and worst performers in the same sector is wide, including in artificial intelligence, which also leads some investors to look at publicly traded AI-related companies rather than a concentrated exposure to OpenAI alone. Diversifying across multiple strategies and AI sub-sectors allows you to capture the theme's growth without pinning the entire bet on a single company and its uncertain IPO timeline, while clearly distinguishing between already public companies and private start-ups.

Investing in artificial intelligence with Fundora

Fundora identifies and provides access, through its selection team, to private equity strategies linked to companies and projects in the artificial intelligence sector, selected from the top 25% globally, with targeted performance multiples generally ranging between 2.5x and 4x. Effective management is provided by Kyoseil Asset Management under the mandate, a portfolio management company authorized by the AMF under number GP-99040.

The FPCI and SPV mechanism for pooled access

Fundora structures access to these strategies via Professional Private Equity Funds (FPCI), the standard regulatory vehicle for private equity in France, combined with Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) that pool subscriptions from multiple individual investors into a single structure. This pooling significantly lowers the entry threshold compared to direct subscription with an institutional fund, where minimum investments typically reach hundreds of thousands of euros. The minimum amount varies depending on the strategy currently open for investment.

Discretionary management, regulated by AMF authorization

Unlike a vehicle set up for a single transaction, the strategies offered by Fundora are selected and managed by Kyoseil Asset Management under a mandate, subject to the compliance obligations that accompany AMF authorization. While this oversight does not eliminate the risks inherent in private equity—such as illiquidity and the lack of capital guarantees—it provides a governance framework distinct from isolated private arrangements.