OpenAI and Anthropic Speed Toward IPOs as Token Payment Model Faces Customer Backlash

America's leading AI labs are spending the second half of this year preparing for initial public offerings that will vault them into instant megacap status. Anthropic, valued at $965 billion in May, is slated to debut as early as October, and OpenAI, valued at $852 billion in March, is likely to follow in 2027, according to The Daily Upside.

As listings loom, questions about the nature of the companies' token-payment business model are getting louder. Palantir CEO Alex Karp blasted the model last week, telling CNBC that "something has gone completely wrong." During his appearance, he said the US AI industry should not dismiss the potential for cheaper open-weight models, especially those in development in China, to close the gap.

Enterprise customers have begun to question the burdensome cost of pay-per-use token consumption and look to cheaper, less sophisticated open-weight models. The aggressive adoption of agentic AI in some workplaces this year led to the slang term "tokenmaxxing" — referring to engineers using AI models to excess with no clear guidelines.

Executives have quickly realized this isn't the most efficient way of doing business. Companies including Uber, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Meta have taken steps to ration their employees' use of advanced AI, because the token payment structure preferred by Anthropic and OpenAI has proven more expensive than it's worth.

On the regulatory front, the Financial Times reported last week that OpenAI has held talks with the Trump administration about giving the US government a 5% stake. But the proposal hinges on other US AI labs, like Anthropic, agreeing to do the same.

Experts warn that recent export controls on advanced US AI models may accelerate the international adoption of models developed by Chinese firms. Two prominent Silicon Valley financiers — former Trump advisor David Sacks and current Trump advisor Marc Andreessen — have both noted the power of GLM-5.2 in recent weeks.

For investors, these dual IPOs will be among the most closely watched capital markets events of the decade. Whether the token business model can withstand growing enterprise pushback, and how geopolitical factors reshape the competitive landscape, will determine the long-term trajectory of both companies post-listing.