If LLMs are potentially the next phase of computing with as much momentum and economic importance as personal computers were in the 1980s, something is strange about our financing markets that this level of capital is sought in private financing events rather than public market IPOs.

For historical context, Apple IPO'ed in 1980 with a market cap of $1.8 billion, and about $117 million in annual sales. Even if I do an inflation adjustment on those numbers, that's a $6.9 billion market cap and $449 million in sales. I totally get that, strategically, companies like OpenAI (and, say, Stripe) don't need to IPO, because the capital is available in private markets. But I always thought there was something healthy about US tech companies reaching the financial mountaintop of an IPO and those companies then becoming subject to more regulation and disclosure, while also generating a more broadly shared economic prosperity for employees and for public equity investors.