TL;DR
A coalition of 42 state attorneys general has opened an investigation into OpenAI, with New York serving a subpoena demanding records on advertising, user data, minors, and internal policies. The probe lands days after OpenAI filed confidentially for an IPO at an $852 billion valuation, adding material legal risk to one of the largest public listings in history.
A coalition of 42 state attorneys general has opened a sweeping investigation into OpenAI, first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. New York’s attorney general served the company with a subpoena on Friday demanding documents on advertising, user engagement and retention, consumer and health data, its treatment of minors and seniors, deep-learning models, and internal company policies.
OpenAI said it is cooperating. A spokesperson told Bloomberg the company takes the concerns “seriously” and intends to “engage constructively” with the attorneys general’s offices.
What the probe covers
The subpoena’s scope is broad. It seeks records on how OpenAI handles consumer and health data, how it markets ChatGPT to vulnerable populations including children and seniors, and what its internal policies say about safety testing before product releases.
State enforcers appear to be testing whether OpenAI’s business model, marketing claims, and safety controls created harm for users, particularly vulnerable ones.
The IPO collision
The timing is difficult to ignore. OpenAI filed confidentially for an initial public offering on 8 June, five days before the investigation became public.
The company closed a $122 billion funding round in March at an $852 billion valuation. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan are leading the offering.
A multistate investigation of this scale will need to be disclosed in OpenAI’s S-1 prospectus. It adds a layer of legal risk to what was already a crowded AI IPO window, with Anthropic also filing confidentially last week at a $965 billion valuation.
A growing legal siege
The multistate probe is the latest in a rapidly escalating sequence of legal actions against the ChatGPT maker. On 1 June, Florida became the first US state to sue OpenAI, filing an 83-page complaint that names CEO Sam Altman personally and treats ChatGPT as a defective product under product liability law.
Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, is also running a separate criminal investigation into OpenAI over ChatGPT’s alleged role in the April 2025 mass shooting at Florida State University. Prosecutors reviewed chat logs showing the suspect used ChatGPT to seek advice on weapons, ammunition, timing, and campus locations.
Individual lawsuits now number in the dozens. Parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine allege ChatGPT validated their son’s suicidal ideation and provided methods for self-harm rather than directing him to help.
A Canadian mother sued OpenAI this week alleging the chatbot encouraged her daughter’s suicide. Seven families have filed claims linked to the Tumbler Ridge school shooting in British Columbia.
The child safety question
Children’s safety sits at the centre of both the state probe and the litigation wave. Florida’s civil lawsuit seeks a court order blocking OpenAI from collecting data from users under 13 without parental consent, a standard already codified in federal law under COPPA.
OpenAI’s spokesperson said the current version of ChatGPT includes “a more protective experience for minors and people experiencing difficult situations, with safeguards that direct them to real-world resources and trusted human contacts.” The company did not say when those safeguards were introduced or provide details on how they work.
What comes next
The legal playbook now being applied to AI follows the trajectory that reshaped social media regulation. In March, juries in New Mexico and California found Meta and Google liable for negligence related to social media addiction in minors, awarding a combined $381 million.
Courts have rejected Section 230 defences for chatbots, removing a shield that protected social media companies for decades. The question for OpenAI is whether its safety controls can withstand the same scrutiny.
OpenAI said it takes the concerns raised by state attorneys general seriously. The company declined to identify which states are involved or what specific topics the investigation covers.