OpenAI Wants a $1 Trillion Valuation. But College Students Are Testing At The Level Of 10-Year-Olds.

Danielle Liverance

Tue, July 7, 2026 astatine 6:47 AM CDT 4 min read

Quick Read

• At a Meta municipality hall, Zuckerberg admitted AI hasn't accelerated arsenic expected, straight challenging OpenAI's $1 trillion IPO thesis.

• OpenAI mislaid $38.5 cardinal successful 2025 connected $13 cardinal successful gross and won't scope profitability until 2029, yet Altman holds the $1 trillion target.

• OECD information shows 14% of US assemblage students work astatine oregon beneath a 10-year-old's level, astir treble the planetary average.

• Act now: the expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 AI stocks — and Meta didn't marque the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Sam Altman wants Wall Street to worth OpenAI astatine $1 trillion. Meanwhile, 14% of US assemblage students are speechmaking astatine oregon beneath the level of a 10-year-old, according to the OECD. Those 2 facts, sitting broadside by side, whitethorn explicate wherefore the astir anticipated exertion IPO successful a procreation conscionable got pushed into 2027.

OpenAI Files Its S-1

OpenAI confidentially filed its S-1 astir May 22, 2026, targeting a Q3 oregon Q4 2026 debut. Then the marketplace delivered a warning. SpaceX went nationalist successful June, ran up past $225, and fell backmost to astir $153 wrong 2 weeks — a driblet of astir 32% from its highest that OpenAI's advisors reportedly cited arsenic a caution. OpenAI is present reported to beryllium leaning toward delaying its listing to 2027, and portion it hasn't confirmed that timeline, Altman has reportedly rejected immoderate valuation beneath the $1 trillion people arsenic a "nonstarter."

The numbers underneath that people are staggering. OpenAI recorded a $38.5 cardinal nett nonaccomplishment successful 2025 connected astir $13 cardinal successful gross — though overmuch of that fig stems from non-cash accounting charges, with the operating nonaccomplishment person to $21 billion. The institution doesn't expect to crook cash-flow affirmative until 2029 oregon 2030. Anthropic, the closest peer, filed confidentially and precocious raised superior astatine a $965 cardinal valuation. It's inactive aiming for a late-2026 debut. The stake underwriting some valuations is simple: AI volition marque humans dramatically much productive. The grounds is not cooperating.

Act now: the expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 AI stocks — and Meta didn't marque the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

College Students Are Increasingly Testing astatine 10-Year-Old Levels

Start with the US. In the OECD's 2023 PIAAC Survey of Adult Skills, which tested 160,000 adults crossed 31 countries, 14% of US assemblage students scored astatine oregon beneath Level 1 successful literacy, astir treble the OECD average. Globally, 8% of assemblage students present work astatine oregon beneath the level of a 10-year-old. The generational reversal is the sharpest signal: older US adults people supra the planetary literacy average, portion younger US adults present people beneath it. Researchers constituent to pandemic-era learning gaps, looser admissions standards, and the detonation of ample connection models creating a caller level for world failure.