I want to tell you something about this moment that I do not think gets said clearly enough.
What is happening right now in AI is not just a technology story. It is a business window. And like every business window in history, it will not stay open indefinitely.
In June 2026, both OpenAI and Anthropic filed confidential S-1s with the SEC. Two of the most important AI companies in the world are heading toward public markets in the same month. That is not a coincidence, and it is not just a financial event. It is a signal that the foundational infrastructure of the AI era has matured enough to function as a public utility.
This moment has happened before. And the entrepreneurs who understood what it meant the last time it happened built the most consequential companies of the following decade.
Key Takeaways
- When foundational technology companies file for IPO, it signals that the infrastructure has graduated from experimental to stable. AI is at that inflection point in June 2026.
- History shows that the best time to build on top of infrastructure is during and immediately after the infrastructure stabilizes, not years later when the market is saturated.
- The entrepreneurs who plant their AI flag now, building real AI-powered offerings rather than just using AI internally, will own their categories in five years.
- The window for first-mover advantage in AI-powered categories is measurable in months, not years. It is open right now.
Most Entrepreneurs Are Still in Wait-and-See Mode
I talk to entrepreneurs every week. Across industries, across business sizes, across levels of AI familiarity. And the most common posture I encounter is some version of wait-and-see.
They are using AI. Mostly. For some things. When it is convenient. But they have not committed to building anything on top of it. They have not planted a flag in their category. They are waiting to see which direction things shake out before they make a real bet.
I understand the logic. The AI landscape has felt unstable. New models launch every few weeks. Yesterday’s best tool is today’s middle option. Why build on a foundation that keeps shifting?
Here is the problem with that logic. It is the same logic that caused most businesses to miss the internet window, the mobile window, and the cloud window. Not because they were not smart. Not because they did not see the technology. But because they waited for certainty before committing, and by the time certainty arrived, the early movers had already built the category.
The S-1 filings from OpenAI and Anthropic are a message. The foundation is stable enough to build on. The companies that have been providing the infrastructure are mature enough for public markets. The wait-and-see window is closing.
What the S-1 Filings Tell Us
Let me put this in context.
A company files an S-1 when it is ready for the scrutiny of public markets. That scrutiny includes audited financials, disclosed customer concentrations, and a documented business model that institutional investors can underwrite. Companies do not file S-1s when their technology is still experimental. They file when the business is mature.
Anthropic filed its confidential S-1 on June 1, 2026. OpenAI filed around the same time. These are not small companies dipping a toe into public markets. These are the two most-discussed AI companies in the world, filing in the same window.
Now look at the parallel in history.
In the early 2000s, when internet infrastructure companies became publicly traded utilities, what happened to the businesses that were built on top of them? Some of those businesses became the dominant platforms of the next two decades. The ones that moved during the infrastructure maturation phase, not the ones that waited until the infrastructure was ubiquitous.
The analogy is not perfect. It never is. But the pattern is clear enough to act on. When foundational platforms go public, the category-building window opens for the entrepreneurs on top of them.
The rest of the AI ecosystem is moving in the same direction. Google announced at I/O 2026 that AI Mode is now the default search experience. Microsoft launched MAI-Code-1-Flash, its first proprietary code-generation model. Meta announced $115 billion in AI capital expenditure for 2026. These are not experimental investments. These are infrastructure bets at utility scale.
The foundation is being poured. The question for every entrepreneur is what they are going to build on it.
Define Your AI-Powered Offering Before Your Competitors Do
I want to be direct about what I mean when I say “plant your flag.”
Using AI internally to write faster or research more efficiently is valuable. It is not the same thing as building an AI-powered offering. The first is a productivity gain. The second is a competitive position.
An AI-powered offering is something you sell to customers that would not exist, or would not work, without AI. It might be a service that delivers results in a fraction of the time because AI handles the heavy lifting. It might be a product that provides a level of personalization or customization that was not economically possible before. It might be an experience that your competitors cannot replicate yet because they have not built the system underneath it.
The entrepreneurs who are defining these offerings right now, in their categories, with their expertise, are the ones who will own those categories in five years.
The entrepreneurs who wait until the offerings are obvious and commoditized will be competing in a market that is already shaped by someone else’s early bets.
What does your AI-powered offering look like? Not the AI tools you use internally. The thing you build and sell that is only possible because of AI.
Plant Your Flag This Quarter
Here is a concrete path from where you are to having a real AI-powered offering in market.
Step 1: Audit your expertise for AI leverage.
Make a list of the things you know how to do better than most people in your category. Not what you do, but what you know. Your expertise is the unique input that makes an AI-powered offering impossible to commoditize. AI can handle the production. Only you have the specific knowledge and perspective.
Step 2: Identify the gap in your category.
What does no one in your category currently offer that an AI-powered approach could make possible? What is taking your clients too long, costing too much, or delivering inconsistent results? Where are the manual processes that AI could systematize?
Step 3: Define the minimum viable version.
The goal is not to build the full vision. The goal is to build the simplest version of the offering that delivers the core value and tests the market assumption. What is the smallest version of your AI-powered offering that a real customer would pay real money for?
Step 4: Sell one before you build one.
The fastest validation for any new offering is a paying customer. Before you invest months in building something, find one person who would pay for the outcome your offering produces. Describe what you are planning to build. If they want it, you have your first validation. If they have questions that reveal you have not thought something through, you have learned something valuable for free.
Step 5: Build and document publicly.
Once you have your first paying customer or your first real validation signal, build the offering and document the process in your content. Share what you are learning. Talk about the problems you are solving. The entrepreneurs who build AI-powered offerings and talk about them publicly establish themselves as category authorities before the category is crowded. That authority compounds.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean that OpenAI and Anthropic both filed S-1s in June 2026?
An S-1 filing is the formal SEC document a company submits when preparing to become publicly traded. Both OpenAI and Anthropic filing in June 2026 signals that these foundational AI companies have reached a level of business maturity and financial stability that justifies public market scrutiny. For entrepreneurs, this event signals that AI infrastructure is transitioning from experimental technology to stable, permanent business infrastructure, similar to when internet, mobile, or cloud computing companies went public.
Why does AI infrastructure maturity matter for entrepreneurs who are not building AI companies?
AI infrastructure maturity matters because it signals that the tools and platforms entrepreneurs build on top of AI are now reliable enough to support real product investment. Experimental infrastructure creates risk for businesses built on it. Stable infrastructure that is backed by public market accountability creates a foundation that entrepreneurs can build on with confidence. The businesses that moved early on stable internet, mobile, and cloud infrastructure captured outsized market positions that proved durable for decades.
What is an AI-powered offering and how is it different from just using AI internally?
An AI-powered offering is a product or service that an entrepreneur sells to customers that would not exist, or would not work, without AI as a core component. Using AI internally means adopting AI tools to improve productivity inside your own business. Building an AI-powered offering means creating something you deliver to customers that is fundamentally enabled by AI. The internal use improves your margins and efficiency. The external offering creates a market position and competitive differentiation.
How long do entrepreneurs have before the first-mover window in AI-powered categories closes?
There is no precise answer, and the timeline varies by category. Historical patterns from previous technology infrastructure cycles (internet, mobile, cloud) suggest that meaningful first-mover advantages in specific categories are typically established within two to three years of infrastructure stabilization. Given that AI infrastructure is stabilizing now, the clearest window for category-defining positions is 2026 and 2027. This does not mean opportunities disappear after that, but the nature of the opportunity shifts from category creation to category competition.
What should an entrepreneur’s first AI-powered offering look like?
The best first AI-powered offering is the simplest version that delivers a result your customers genuinely value, at a price they will actually pay, using AI to make it economically viable or substantially better than what currently exists. It does not need to be technically complex. It needs to solve a real problem with AI as a meaningful component of the solution. Start with your deepest expertise and the clearest customer pain point in your category.
What happens to entrepreneurs who wait too long to build AI-powered offerings?
Entrepreneurs who wait will find that their categories are increasingly shaped by the businesses that moved earlier. They will enter markets that already have category leaders, established customer expectations, and proven business models. They will compete on price and incremental differentiation rather than category creation. Some of those competitive situations will still be viable. None of them will offer the leverage and margin of being a category builder during the infrastructure maturation phase.
The Window Is Measurable in Months
I have been studying technology cycles and entrepreneur behavior for a long time. And the thing that strikes me most about this moment is not the technology itself. It is how familiar the pattern is.
Every significant technology infrastructure cycle has a window. A period when the infrastructure is new enough to be uncrowded but stable enough to build on. A period when the entrepreneurs who move create positions that last for years. A period that, in retrospect, everyone agrees was obvious.
We are in that period with AI right now.
The S-1 filings are not just a Wall Street story. They are a signal to every entrepreneur who has been watching from the sidelines.
The window is open. The foundation is stable. The categories are not yet claimed.
What will you build?
About the Author
Jonathan Mast is an AI business educator, author, and entrepreneur. He works with founders and business owners to help them understand how to use AI strategically, not just tactically. He writes about the intersection of AI, entrepreneurship, and human performance at JonathanMast.com.
