Category: Devices & How-Tos
Published: May 22, 2026
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
This week, three of the most talked-about companies in the world of technology made moves that could reshape how the entire industry is valued — all at the same time. OpenAI, SpaceX, and Anthropic are all eyeing public listings within months of each other, and the numbers coming out of their filings are staggering.
If you have ever wondered who the real players behind the AI revolution are, this is the week to pay attention.
Here is everything you need to know, explained clearly.
First — what does “going public” mean?
Before we get into the stories, a quick explainer for those unfamiliar with the term.
When a private company “goes public,” it lists its shares on a stock exchange — like the Nasdaq or NYSE — so that ordinary people and investors can buy a piece of the company. This process is called an IPO (Initial Public Offering).
Going public usually means a company has grown large enough and profitable enough to attract public investors. It also means they have to open their books — revealing their revenue, costs, profits, and losses — for the whole world to see. That is why IPO season tends to produce the most interesting numbers in tech.
1. OpenAI is filing for its IPO — and it could be the biggest in history
OpenAI — the company behind ChatGPT — is reportedly filing its IPO paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission as early as today, May 22, 2026. The company is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on the listing, which is expected to happen in September 2026.
The number that has everyone talking: OpenAI is currently valued at $852 billion in private markets. If it lists publicly at $1 trillion, it would be the largest technology IPO in history — surpassing even Saudi Aramco’s record listing.
What this means for everyday people: If the IPO goes ahead, it will be possible for regular investors to buy shares in the company behind ChatGPT. Whether that is a good investment is a separate conversation — but the significance of the world’s most famous AI company going public cannot be overstated.
2. Anthropic just hit its first-ever quarterly profit
Anthropic — the AI safety company behind the Claude family of AI models — released financial projections this week that surprised almost everyone in the industry.
The company is projecting $10.9 billion in revenue for the quarter ending June 2026 — a 130% jump from the $4.8 billion it recorded just one quarter earlier. More importantly, Anthropic is on track for its first-ever quarterly operating profit of approximately $559 million.
This matters because frontier AI companies — the ones training the most powerful models — have always been assumed to be burning through cash with no end in sight. Anthropic reaching profitability ahead of its own forecasts changes that assumption completely.
The growth has been driven largely by Claude Code — Anthropic’s AI coding tool — which has become widely used by enterprise software teams around the world. The number of companies spending $1 million or more annually on Anthropic products doubled from 500 to over 1,000 between February and April 2026 alone.
Anthropic is also targeting a public listing — with October 2026 cited as the most likely window.
3. SpaceX filed its IPO — and revealed a shocking deal with Anthropic
SpaceX — Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite internet company — filed its IPO prospectus on May 20, 2026, targeting a listing on Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX at a valuation of $1.75 trillion, which would make it the largest IPO in history if achieved.
The Starlink satellite internet service — which already serves 10.3 million subscribers in 164 countries — generated $1.19 billion in operating profit in just the first quarter of 2026. This is the profitable engine at the heart of the SpaceX business.
But buried inside the filing was a number that shocked even the most seasoned tech analysts — Anthropic is paying SpaceX $1.25 billion every single month for access to its AI computing infrastructure. That works out to $15 billion per year, and the deal runs through May 2029, totalling approximately $45 billion.
To put that in context: Anthropic needs that much computing power to train and run its AI models. The infrastructure required to build and serve the kind of AI tools that millions of people use every day is almost incomprehensibly expensive.
4. The AI race is about infrastructure, not just software
One theme running through all three stories this week is that the real battleground in AI right now is computing power — not just the models themselves.
Nvidia — the company that makes the specialised chips (GPUs) used to train AI models — this week forecast $91 billion in second-quarter revenue, comfortably beating Wall Street expectations. It also announced an $80 billion stock buyback, a signal of extreme financial confidence.
Nvidia’s chips are at the centre of the AI infrastructure boom. Anthropic buys compute from SpaceX, which runs on Nvidia hardware. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are all racing to build data centres filled with Nvidia chips. The company that designs these chips is, arguably, the biggest winner of the AI revolution so far.
5. Chinese AI models now account for 60% of all AI usage on major platforms
A striking statistic emerged this week from OpenRouter — a platform that routes requests to different AI models — showing that Chinese AI models now handle 60% of all AI usage on the platform.
This signals a major shift. A year ago, American companies like OpenAI and Anthropic dominated AI usage. The rapid rise of Chinese models — led by DeepSeek and others — has disrupted that dominance, partly because they are cheaper to run and in some cases comparable in quality.
For Nigerian students and developers, this is worth paying attention to. Cheaper, capable AI tools — regardless of where they come from — mean more accessible AI for people who cannot afford premium subscriptions.
What does all of this mean for Nigerians?
This week’s news might feel distant — stock filings in America, billions of dollars, Wall Street banks. But it has very real implications for anyone using tech in Nigeria:
AI tools are getting cheaper and more competitive. As more companies go public and compete for users, prices will come down and free tiers will expand. This is already happening — DeepSeek, Gemini, and Claude all offer generous free access.
The internet is getting more powerful. SpaceX’s Starlink is already operating in Nigeria. As the company grows and invests more in infrastructure, satellite internet access — currently a lifeline for many Nigerians in areas with poor broadband — will improve.
Understanding these companies matters. ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini — the tools students, teachers, and professionals in Nigeria are using every day are products of these companies. Knowing who builds them, how they make money, and what they are planning next gives you a real edge in understanding where technology is heading.
Quick summary
| Company | News this week | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | Filing for IPO, $852B valuation, September listing | ChatGPT’s parent company going public |
| Anthropic | $10.9B revenue, first-ever profit, October IPO target | Claude’s maker turning profitable faster than expected |
| SpaceX | IPO at $1.75T target, $1.25B/month Anthropic deal revealed | Starlink parent going public, massive AI infrastructure deal exposed |
| Nvidia | $91B revenue forecast, $80B buyback | AI chip demand showing no signs of slowing |
This is genuinely one of the most eventful weeks in tech history — and it is all happening right now. What part of this story are you following most closely? Drop a comment below and let us know.
