OpenAI will release its next major artificial intelligence model, GPT-5.6, in limited preview form after the Trump administration asked the company to stagger its rollout on national security grounds, according to people familiar with the matter. Sam Altman told employees at a company Q&A on Wednesday that the US government would approve access to the model 'customer by customer' during the preview period, granting initial entry only to a small group of partners.
The request came from the Office of the National Cyber Director and the Office of Science and Technology Policy [Source: The Information]. The move echoes a similar episode involving Anthropic, which suspended its most capable offerings from the market under regulatory pressure nearly two weeks before the OpenAI request.
Separately, CNBC, citing The New York Times, reported that OpenAI is leaning toward waiting until next year to pursue a public offering [Source: CNBC]. SoftBank Group (9984.T; SFTBY) shares fell 12.74% in Tokyo to 6,211 yen on Friday following reports of the potential IPO delay, with the selloff also pressured by weakness in Arm and concern over the capital needed to fund AI infrastructure [Source: GuruFocus]. Friday's selloff unfolded alongside a broader retreat in Asian and European technology shares, as investors weighed rising AI infrastructure costs following Apple's announcement of price increases on some MacBook and iPad products [Source: Quartz]. SoftBank's total commitment to OpenAI is expected to reach approximately $65 billion by October, and the Japanese conglomerate carries a $40 billion bridge loan taken on to fund those commitments, with repayment due in March 2027. The fair value of SoftBank's total OpenAI investment stood at $79.6 billion at year-end against a cumulative investment cost of $34.6 billion.
OpenAI was last privately valued at approximately $730 billion. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are advising the company on a possible public offering, and OpenAI has filed confidential listing documents with US securities regulators. The prospect of a major payday from an OpenAI listing had previously lifted SoftBank's shares to all-time highs, pushing its market capitalisation past that of Toyota Motor Corp last month.
OpenAI has not published official terms of the GPT-5.6 preview arrangement. Reporting on the staggered release and Altman's communication to staff rests on his account to employees and anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
Sources: Bloomberg, The Verge, The Guardian, The Information, Reuters, CNBC, The New York Times, Quartz, GuruFocus