Bank of America (BAC  ) has moved deeper into the artificial intelligence financing race by providing OpenAI with a $520 million credit facility as the company prepares for its initial public offering (IPO). The lending commitment puts the bank among OpenAI's biggest creditors and positions it for more work tied to major AI listings. The credit line is BofA's first loan to OpenAI. The bank's internal figures reviewed by Reuters show it has participated in raising close to $500 billion for AI-linked issuers since 2025, spanning investment-grade debt, leveraged finance and equity deals.

OpenAI quietly submitted paperwork for a U.S. IPO in June, after starting in 2015 as a nonprofit research group and later setting up a profit-seeking unit to help pay for increasingly expensive AI development.

The company is chasing a trillion-dollar IPO, but new reporting has suggested that the listing may now slip to 2027 as the company burns through cash at a record pace.

The ChatGPT maker is leaning toward holding off until next year, according to a New York Times report citing three people involved in the deliberations.

Advisers reportedly presented Altman with two options: wait until 2027 to reach the trillion-dollar mark, or settle for a smaller number and list in 2026. Altman reportedly called any reduction a "non-starter."

The bank's push into marquee offerings comes after it worked on SpaceX's IPO as a joint bookrunner and ran distribution to U.S. retail investors. SpaceX began trading in June at a valuation topping $2 trillion in what is described as the largest IPO globally.

BfoA has also been pursuing advisory assignments connected to potential IPOs for OpenAI and rival Anthropic. Anthropic announced it had confidentially filed a draft Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, giving the artificial intelligence company the option to go public after the SEC completes its review.