OpenAI is becoming something of a whale in waters where it is having an outsize effect, wielding unprecedented market influence for a private company and sending public company shares soaring and plummeting with each product announcement despite having no plans to list its own stock.
The artificial intelligence startup recently sent Shopify and Etsy shares up after unveiling an instant buy option in ChatGPT, whilst a blog post about internal AI tools triggered sharp declines in software stocks including Atlassian, Klaviyo and DocuSign, reports Bloomberg.
The market-moving power typically reserved for giants like Apple or Nvidia reflects OpenAI’s growing influence across multiple sectors, even as the company remains privately valued at $500 billion. Investors are now closely watching OpenAI’s third annual DevDay conference starting Monday in San Francisco for fresh clues about future expansion plans.
“Software and internet investors are keenly focused on where OpenAI will go next and how disruptive it could be,” said UBS analyst Karl Keirstead, noting the company must diversify beyond ChatGPT subscriptions.
The Sam Altman-led company is exploring new revenue streams to offset massive operational costs, having generated $4.3 billion in revenue during the first half of 2025 whilst losing $2.5 billion. With more than 700 million ChatGPT users, OpenAI is developing AI agents for consumer applications including potential travel booking and browser services.
A recent post by Chief Commercial Officer Giancarlo Lionetti detailing internal AI tools for research, contract analysis and customer support sent software-as-a-service stocks tumbling more than 9 per cent, with Goldman Sachs’ SaaS basket posting its worst week in two months.
“Even though we can’t play OpenAI directly, this could be an important event, since any information we learn about its plans or products will help investors assess the landscape,” said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder.
However, Bank of America analysts suggest the negative stock reactions appear disconnected from fundamentals, viewing disruption threats as potentially overblown.
“OpenAI will be looked back on as one of the most influential companies in the AI transformation, and it is certainly an odd situation for a private company to have so much impact,” said Kevin Cook, senior strategist at Zacks Investment Research.
