OpenAI's Reported $30 Billion Raise Now Prices the Company at $1.25 Trillion, Down From $1.4 Trillion
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OpenAI's Reported $30 Billion Raise Now Prices the Company at $1.25 Trillion, Down From $1.4 Trillion
Nothing is signed and OpenAI declined to comment. The valuation in the reporting has moved three times in a month, and the March round is the only figure OpenAI has confirmed.
OpenAI is working on a raise of up to $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation, TechCrunch reported on October 22, citing reporting by CNBC. That would be a record for a private company and 47% above the $852 billion post-money valuation of OpenAI's March round. Terms are still being negotiated and could change, and OpenAI declined to comment.
TechCrunch said CNBC reported Coatue and investors based in the United Arab Emirates as leads. CNBC also reported the UAE money could be paired with a deal for more computing capacity for OpenAI from the UAE. None of this has been confirmed by OpenAI or by an investor.
Three figures in a month
The $1.25 trillion figure is lower than the one Bloomberg reported about a month earlier. TechCrunch said Bloomberg reported a $30 billion raise at a $1.4 trillion valuation in late September. Morningstar, in an article dated September 23, reported OpenAI was in early talks at a range of $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion.
| Date | Figure | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| October 2025 | $500 billion | Morningstar, prior valuation |
| March 2026 | $852 billion | Round OpenAI completed, $122 billion raised |
| September 23 | $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion | Morningstar, reported early talks |
| Late September | $1.4 trillion | Bloomberg, via TechCrunch |
| October 22 | $1.25 trillion | CNBC, via TechCrunch |
- Oct 2025500 $ billion
- Mar 2026 (post-money)852 $ billion
- Oct 22 report (pre-money)1250 $ billion
- Late Sept report (pre-money)1400 $ billion
Source: Morningstar (Sept. 23, 2026) and TechCrunch (Oct. 22, 2026); the last two figures are reported talks, not closed deals
The two reported figures are pre-money, while the March number is post-money, so the comparison above is loose by the size of the raise.
What an analyst made of the range
Harrison Rolfes, a senior research analyst at PitchBook, said in the Morningstar piece to "read this as a capital raise, not price discovery." He said "the $1.2 trillion is what investors offered; the $1.5 trillion is what OpenAI wants, and nothing is priced." That reading would fit the drop from $1.4 trillion to $1.25 trillion, though no report says why the figure moved.
Rolfes also put the valuation against revenue. Reports put OpenAI's annualized revenue run rate above $40 billion, which Morningstar said implies a multiple of 30 to 38 times. He compared that with Anthropic, whose reported ask of $2 trillion sits on $65 billion, and described it as the faster-growing business with positive adjusted operating income.
The IPO question
TechCrunch said OpenAI filed confidential IPO paperwork in June 2026 and that the new round is being pursued rather than an immediate listing. It said Anthropic raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation in May and also filed confidentially in June. CNBC reported Anthropic is seeking $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion for its debut, per TechCrunch.
Morningstar reported that Sam Altman, OpenAI's chief executive, ruled out going public in 2026. That sits uneasily beside the June filing, since a confidential filing does not set a listing date. Neither source says when OpenAI expects to list.
The March round was a mix of venture equity and debt, with equity led by Nvidia, Amazon and SoftBank Group, according to Morningstar. OpenAI's other recent announcements include a command-line tool whose README and docs disagree. Another funding story on the site is Warp Science's round.
OpenAI has not said whether it will announce a close, and no date has been reported for one.
Sources
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