Can you invest in OpenAI’s ChatGPT? Stocks & Shares to Consider

ChatGPT, the AI chatbot developed by OpenAI, has gone from a viral curiosity at its launch on November 30, 2022, to one of the most influential consumer technology products in the world. By early 2026, ChatGPT has over 900 million weekly active users and more than 50 million paying subscribers – and the broader generative AI boom it kicked off has reshaped productivity, software development, and entire industries.

OpenAI itself is now one of the most valuable private companies in history, having most recently been valued at around $852 billion following a record $122 billion funding round in March 2026, with reports of a potential IPO at up to a $1 trillion valuation. Naturally, many investors want exposure – but OpenAI is still privately held, which means buying ChatGPT shares directly isn’t yet possible for retail investors.

In this article, we explore the ways you can gain exposure to ChatGPT and the broader AI theme, including the public companies most closely tied to OpenAI’s success, what to consider when choosing a broker to invest, and what to know about OpenAI’s expected IPO.

Can you invest in OpenAI’s ChatGPT?

ChatGPT was developed by OpenAI, an artificial intelligence (AI) research and deployment company. OpenAI is not yet a public company, so individual investors cannot buy its shares directly on the open market.

That said, OpenAI is now widely expected to go public: reports indicate the company is targeting an IPO that could come as early as late 2026 or 2027, potentially at a valuation of up to $1 trillion. It has already taken concrete preparatory steps, including hiring a dedicated Head of Investor Relations and significantly restructuring its corporate setup. Once that listing happens, retail investors will be able to buy OpenAI shares through their broker like any other public stock.

It’s worth noting OpenAI’s unusual corporate structure. It began in 2015 as a non-profit research lab, and in 2019 created a “capped-profit” subsidiary (OpenAI LP, now OpenAI Global, LLC) to attract investment capital and talent. As OpenAI explained:

“The fundamental idea of OpenAI LP is that investors and employees can get a capped return if we succeed at our mission, which allows us to raise investment capital and attract employees with startup-like equity. But any returns beyond that amount – and if we are successful, we expect to generate orders of magnitude more value than we’d owe to people who invest in or work at OpenAI LP – are owned by the original OpenAI Nonprofit entity.”

Through 2024-2025, OpenAI began further restructuring towards a more conventional for-profit form (in part to support a future IPO), though the original non-profit retains significant oversight.

For now, given that you can’t buy OpenAI shares directly, there are several public companies with deep ties to OpenAI or the broader AI theme that you may want to consider.

As a quick experiment, we asked ChatGPT itself how to invest in OpenAI – and its response was that, while you can’t invest directly in the company today, it’s possible to gain exposure indirectly through public companies that benefit from or partner with OpenAI’s technology:

Indirectly investing in OpenAI

Although you can’t invest directly in OpenAI yet, there are several ways to gain indirect exposure.

The most direct route is investing in Microsoft, which has been OpenAI’s largest strategic partner and investor since 2019, committing more than $13 billion to the company over multiple rounds. Following OpenAI’s 2024-2025 restructuring, Microsoft holds an economic interest of around 27% in OpenAI’s for-profit arm (down from its earlier reported ~49% revenue-sharing stake), along with a long-running exclusive cloud partnership through Microsoft Azure. By investing in Microsoft shares, you gain meaningful indirect exposure to OpenAI’s success.

Other public companies also have ties to OpenAI’s growth: Nvidia participated in OpenAI’s record $122 billion funding round in March 2026 and supplies most of the GPUs that power its models, while Amazon, SoftBank, and Oracle are also among OpenAI’s recent investors or infrastructure partners. We cover the most relevant options below.

AI stocks to consider

1. Microsoft

Microsoft (ticker: MSFT) remains the most straightforward way to gain indirect exposure to ChatGPT and OpenAI’s success. Microsoft first invested in OpenAI in 2019, followed by further capital injections in 2021 and a major multi-billion-dollar commitment in January 2023. In total, Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI, and the two companies extended and reshaped their partnership in 2024-2025 alongside OpenAI’s restructuring, keeping Microsoft as a key strategic partner and the exclusive cloud provider for many OpenAI workloads.

OpenAI’s models are also deeply embedded across Microsoft’s product portfolio. Bing now incorporates OpenAI models in its AI-powered search and chat experience (Microsoft Copilot, the broader brand Microsoft rolled “Bing Chat” into), and Microsoft 365 Copilot brings OpenAI-powered AI features into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. Microsoft has also embedded the technology into GitHub Copilot (the popular AI coding assistant) and Azure OpenAI Service, which lets enterprise customers build on the same models. Below is an example response we got when asking Microsoft Copilot the question, “Will Microsoft benefit from its investment in OpenAI?”:

2. Alphabet (Google)

Alphabet (ticker: GOOGL), the parent company behind Google, has long dominated internet search and is now one of the most prominent players in AI alongside Microsoft/OpenAI. Google still holds the dominant share of the global search market (broadly in the 88-90% range, though challenged in recent years by AI-powered alternatives), so it has every incentive to keep pace – and is investing heavily in AI to do so.

Alphabet’s flagship AI offering is Gemini, a family of multimodal AI models developed by Google DeepMind that competes directly with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Originally launched as “Bard” in early 2023, the chatbot was rebranded to Gemini in February 2024, and Google has since rolled out successive Gemini model generations (Gemini 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0) along with paid subscription tiers (Gemini Advanced, via Google One AI Premium). Gemini is now integrated across Google’s product portfolio – Search (via AI Overviews), Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Sheets), Android, Chrome, and the Pixel phone line – making Alphabet a major direct beneficiary of AI adoption.

Beyond its in-house efforts, Alphabet is also a major investor in Anthropic, the AI safety company behind the Claude family of AI assistants. Google has committed billions of dollars to Anthropic, alongside Amazon, and Anthropic’s models are available on Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform. Anthropic itself has grown rapidly and was reportedly valued at around $965 billion in a May 2026 funding round, briefly making it the world’s most valuable private AI company.

3. Alibaba

Alibaba (ticker: BABA) is one of China’s leading AI players, building a credible competitor to OpenAI through its in-house large language model family. Tongyi Qianwen – meaning “truth from a thousand questions” – was first unveiled in April 2023 and has since evolved into the Qwen series, a family of increasingly capable models (now in their Qwen2/Qwen3 generations) that Alibaba develops in both proprietary and open-source forms.

Qwen has emerged as one of the strongest open-source AI model families globally, frequently topping benchmarks against other open models and competing with proprietary models from OpenAI, Google, and Meta on tasks like coding, mathematics, reasoning, and multilingual support (with coverage across many languages). The models are integrated across Alibaba’s ecosystem – including its workplace platform DingTalk, the Tmall Genie smart assistant, and Alibaba Cloud’s enterprise AI services – and Alibaba has also aggressively cut cloud prices to accelerate AI adoption by enterprise customers.

For investors, Alibaba offers exposure to AI development at scale within the world’s second-largest economy, with the caveat that BABA carries the geopolitical, regulatory, and Chinese-equity risks that have weighed on the stock in recent years – including US-China tensions, restrictions on advanced AI chip exports to China, and ongoing scrutiny of US-listed Chinese ADRs.

4. The countless smaller rivals

While Microsoft, Alphabet, and Alibaba are examples of large, established companies that already have AI products in market, they also face significant potential disruption from new entrants to the AI scene. It’s still hard to say with certainty who will prevail in the long run – the IT giants of the past two decades, or newer challengers that could send some incumbents into the background.

The list of well-funded AI challengers has grown rapidly. Beyond OpenAI itself, Anthropic (the maker of Claude) reached a reported valuation of around $965 billion in May 2026, briefly making it the most valuable private AI company in the world. xAI (Elon Musk’s AI company, the maker of Grok) has also raised tens of billions of dollars at multi-hundred-billion valuations. Perplexity AI has emerged as a serious AI-powered search competitor, and a wave of Chinese players such as DeepSeek and Moonshot AI have surprised the market with capable, lower-cost models. Most of these companies, however, are still privately held – so retail investors generally can’t buy their shares directly today.

For investors, a prudent approach is to consider both the large incumbents and smaller upstarts, while being mindful of “AI-washing” – companies attaching the AI label without much substance behind it. The key distinction is that established companies are already profitable and are mainly defending and extending existing revenue streams, while many AI start-ups are still developing products that may or may not become commercially viable. Both categories can be part of an AI-themed portfolio, but they carry very different risk profiles.

How to make the trade (Step-by-step guide)

1. Choose a good broker

Once you’ve done the hard part of choosing which AI stocks to invest in, you’ll need a broker to actually make the purchase. If you’re investing in one of the established AI-exposed names like Microsoft, Alphabet, Nvidia, or Alibaba, the main thing to focus on is broker trading commissions – all of these are major US-listed (or US-listed ADR) stocks that virtually every broker offers.

If you’d rather invest in smaller or international AI players, you’ll want a broker offering access to a wider range of global markets and exchanges. And if you specifically want to position for OpenAI’s expected IPO, look for a broker that participates in IPO allocations or at least allows quick post-IPO market access.

We recently compared DEGIRO and Interactive Brokers, two of the leading discount brokers available to investors!

2. Open and fund your account

Once you’ve weighed the pros and cons of each broker, you’re ready to open an account. The process is typically fully digital and can often be completed within a day or two, as the broker needs to verify your identity (KYC) and complete the regulatory checks. Once your account is approved, you simply deposit funds and you’re ready to invest.

3. Find your stock

Finding the stock you want to buy is straightforward – every trading platform offers a search function where you can look up a company by its name or stock ticker (for example, MSFT for Microsoft, GOOGL for Alphabet, NVDA for Nvidia, or BABA for Alibaba). Keep in mind that large companies are often dual-listed across several exchanges, which can let you buy their shares in different currencies. For European investors, this is particularly useful: holding US stocks via a European listing can sometimes help you avoid FX conversion fees, though liquidity and bid-ask spreads are usually best on the primary US exchange.

4. Place a “Buy Order”

Once you’ve found an online broker that suits your needs, opened an investment account, and made your initial deposit, you’re ready to buy. All that’s left is to place a buy order.

When placing the order, the key things to pay attention to are:

• Quantity of shares you’re purchasing (or, if your broker supports fractional shares, the amount in currency you want to invest).
• Order type – a market order if you want to buy at the best available price right now, or a limit order if you only want the purchase to go through at a specific price (or better).
• Order duration – whether the order should be valid only for the day, for a set period, or “good till cancelled” (GTC) until you manually cancel it.

AI ETFs

Another way to get exposure to the AI industry is through exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The main benefit of ETFs is the diversification they provide – you get exposure to dozens of companies in a single trade, which limits the impact if any one of them disappoints.

Some ETFs you may want to consider, available at many of the brokers outlined above:

• Invesco QQQ (QQQ) – a broad technology ETF that tracks the NASDAQ-100, giving you exposure to the largest US-listed tech and AI-adjacent names (Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and others). One of the largest and most liquid ETFs in the world.
• Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF (BOTZ) – tracks companies expected to benefit from increased adoption of robotics and AI.
• Virtus Artificial Intelligence & Technology Opportunities Fund (AIO) – an actively managed closed-end fund investing in AI-related companies and those expected to benefit from AI adoption.

One important caveat for European investors: under EU rules (PRIIPs/UCITS), US-domiciled ETFs like QQQ, BOTZ, and AIO generally cannot be bought directly by European retail investors as they don’t have the required local-language Key Information Document (KID). On eToro, QQQ is available only as a CFD, not as a real share. UCITS-compliant alternatives that European investors can buy include:

• Amundi STOXX Europe 600 Technology UCITS ETF – Acc (TNO) – tracks European technology companies (note: formerly Lyxor, rebranded after Amundi acquired Lyxor’s ETF business in 2022)
• iShares STOXX Europe 600 Technology UCITS ETF (DE) (EXV3) – same European tech index, distributing share class
• iShares NASDAQ 100 UCITS ETF (CNDX or SXRV) – a UCITS-compliant alternative to QQQ, giving European investors equivalent NASDAQ-100 exposure
• WisdomTree Artificial Intelligence UCITS ETF (WTAI) – a UCITS-compliant AI-themed ETF tracking companies involved in AI development and adoption

As always, European ETFs come in two flavours: accumulating ETFs (such as TNO above) which automatically reinvest dividends within the fund, and distributing ETFs (such as EXV3) which pay dividends out to investors. The choice depends on your tax situation and whether you want income or reinvested growth.

Bottom line

To sum it up, here’s what you need to do:

1. Choose an AI stock or ETF to buy. Large, established companies (like Microsoft, Alphabet, Nvidia, or Alibaba) are already profitable and well-positioned to monetise AI, but face the risk of disruption by newer entrants. Smaller AI-focused companies offer higher growth potential but also higher uncertainty around whether their products will become commercially viable. An AI-themed or broad tech ETF can offer diversified exposure across both camps. And if you want to position for OpenAI’s expected IPO, keep an eye on the news flow over the coming year.
2. Find a suitable stock broker. For US-listed AI stocks, the main thing to focus on is broker trading commissions. If you’re looking to invest in smaller or international AI companies, look for a broker offering broader market access. If you want exposure to the OpenAI IPO when it happens, look for a broker that offers IPO allocations or fast post-listing access.
3. Open an account and deposit funds. Once you’ve chosen your platform, complete the account opening process (usually fully digital with KYC verification), then fund the account with your chosen deposit method.
4. Place a buy order for the AI stock or ETF you’ve chosen. The easiest part – search the platform for the company’s name or ticker, decide on quantity and order type (market or limit), and place the trade.

We hope this article has addressed some of your questions and given you a clearer picture of how to gain exposure to the AI theme. As always, do your own research and consider your own risk tolerance to find the investing approach that suits you best.