OpenAI had planned to split its robotics and hardware divisions before IPO, but the plan was rejected due to financial consolidation issues

According to Botimize Beating monitoring, The Wall Street Journal exclusively reported that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had discussed at the end of last year the possibility of spinning off the company's robotics division and consumer hardware division, allowing them to each raise funds and operate independently to avoid burdening the core business. However, this plan was ultimately rejected, partly because OpenAI determined that the spun-off entities would still need to be consolidated into the parent company's financial statements, thus not achieving the desired separation effect.

This idea reflects the strategic trade-offs OpenAI faced during its sprint towards an IPO. Over the years, Altman had approved a large number of projects beyond the scope of chatbots, but the company recently faced greater focus pressure: the core business lagged behind Anthropic, some internal user and revenue targets were not met as expected, and the video generation tool Sora was scrapped to free up computing power. Currently, OpenAI is undergoing a transformation around a new "super app," focusing on developers and enterprise users.

Insiders say that OpenAI may revisit the spin-off plan in the future, taking a cue from Google's establishment of the holding company Alphabet in 2015, separating the core search business from long-term investments such as Waymo for separate accounting. The two divisions earmarked for spin-off are currently operating independently within the company, reporting directly to Altman. The hardware division, which acquired former Apple designer Jony Ive's io company and its approximately 55 employees in a $6.5 billion stock deal in May last year, is expected to ship its new device no earlier than February 2027.