We\u2019ve heard a lot about the artificial intelligence (AI) boom and how enormous amounts of money are being poured into companies building ever more powerful technologies.<\/p>\n
That boom is now taking a new turn as major AI players edge closer to becoming publicly-traded companies<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to reports<\/a>, OpenAI is preparing to file confidentially for a public listing that could value the ChatGPT maker at hundreds of billions of dollars. What many people may not realise, however, is that, through retirement funds, pensions and other managed investments, they could end up owning shares in these giants \u2013 whether they choose to or not.<\/p>\n And while people might have moral concerns with the AI companies they\u2019re tied to, the greater issue at play is about money, risk and who ends up holding it.<\/p>\n Where AI\u2019s billions go<\/p>\n Building a cutting-edge AI system requires vast numbers of specialised computer chips, running nonstop in data centres that consume enough electricity to power a small city<\/a>.<\/p>\n OpenAI plans to spend around US$50 billion<\/a> on computing power in 2026 alone. In 2017, that same company spent roughly US$30 million, a 1,600-fold increase in less than a decade. OpenAI is targeting roughly US$600 billion<\/a> in compute spending \u2013 or that in areas such as processing power, data storage and cloud infrastructure \u2013 through to 2030.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just OpenAI. The big technology companies are collectively expected to invest<\/a> around US$650 billion in AI infrastructure in 2026. That\u2019s roughly one-third of Australia\u2019s annual GDP \u2013 or two-and-a-half times New Zealand\u2019s<\/a> \u2013 being committed to one technology bet in a single year.<\/p>\n All these expenses must be covered before the companies earn consistent profits. This is why they keep raising money \u2013 and why the question of where that money will eventually come from is enormously important.<\/p>\n In 2025, total investment in AI companies reached US$217 billion. Then, in just the first three months of 2026, private AI companies raised a further US$226 billion, surpassing the entire 2025 total in a single quarter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Much of this was concentrated in three transactions: US$122 billion for OpenAI, US$30 billion for Anthropic and US$7.5 billion for xAI.<\/p>\n Together, these three deals alone accounted for 71% of all AI funding that quarter. Mega-rounds above US$100 million<\/a> now make up 94% of all AI investment by value.<\/p>\n The funding has mostly come from large institutions: venture capital firms, sovereign wealth funds, and technology giants that can afford to take the risk. The gains and the losses stay within a small, specialist group.<\/p>\n When the AI sector goes public<\/p>\n Once a company is publicly listed, anyone can buy its shares.<\/p>\n More importantly, large index-tracking funds \u2013 widely used in Australia\u2019s Super system and New Zealand\u2019s KiwiSaver funds \u2013 automatically gain exposure to companies once they become large enough to enter the indices those funds follow.<\/p>\n In other words, they don\u2019t get to decide whether it looks like a good investment; the index simply decides for them.<\/p>\n That matters for ethical investors, too. The thought of AI raises concerns about privacy, labour, misinformation and security<\/a>. But unlike tobacco or gambling, it may prove difficult to exclude because it is being increasingly woven into the world\u2019s largest listed companies<\/a>.<\/p>\n There is, therefore, a case for asking whether these companies should trigger an opt-out mechanism for fund managers and regulators before the listings arrive.<\/p>\n Neither OpenAI, Anthropic, nor xAI has formally announced a stock market listing, and timelines remain uncertain. When that shift comes, the risk also shifts. The investors who funded the early stages of this race<\/a> knew what they were getting into.<\/p>\n The people who will end up holding the shares through their pension funds or index trackers may not.<\/p>\n Index providers are rewriting the rules<\/p>\n Here is where the picture becomes more complex. Major index providers are changing their rules so newly listed mega-cap AI companies can enter key benchmarks much faster.<\/p>\n Nasdaq has already adopted<\/a> a fast-track rule that allows a newly listed mega-cap company to join the Nasdaq-100 after just 15 trading days. S&P Dow Jones Indices is consulting<\/a> on similar changes that would reduce the waiting period and waive profitability requirements for mega-caps.<\/p>\n These changes are reshaping the index system to funnel passive money into AI giants almost as soon as they list \u2013 and before most investors have had time to decide whether they belong in their portfolios at all.<\/p>\n So, what can ordinary investors do?<\/p>\n As they likely won\u2019t be making the call themselves on whether to invest in an AI stock market float, they can put questions to the fund managers doing so on their behalf.<\/p>\n Those might be questions about whether the company is becoming more efficient, what their customer retention looks like, or how their leadership holds up under pressure.<\/p>\n
\nRivals including Anthropic (Claude) and Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX<\/a> \u2013 which just absorbed xAI (Grok) \u2013 are also moving toward the stock market.<\/p>\n