- OpenAI is reportedly seeking at least $30 billion at a $1.4 trillion pre-money valuation.
- The early-stage talks would serve as bridge financing in place of an IPO, Bloomberg reported.
- Its last round closed on March 31 at an $852 billion post-money valuation.
OpenAI has pushed back its IPO, but it has not stopped raising money. The ChatGPT maker is reportedly seeking at least $30 billion in new funding at a valuation of around $1.4 trillion, not counting the new capital, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter.
The talks are at an early stage and terms could change, and demand for the round is being led by investors, Reuters reported in its summary of the Bloomberg story. OpenAI did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The number has moved fast. On September 16, Tech Funding News reported, citing the Financial Times, that investors had approached OpenAI about a round that could value the company above $1.2 trillion. A $1.4 trillion pre-money valuation would be about 17% higher, and 64% above the $852 billion post-money valuation from March. Bloomberg said it could put OpenAI back above Anthropic’s latest private valuation.
Bridge financing while the IPO waits
OpenAI closed $122 billion in committed capital at an $852 billion post-money valuation on March 31, then the largest private financing round in Silicon Valley history. Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank anchored it, with Microsoft continuing to participate. In its announcement, OpenAI said SoftBank co-led alongside a16z, D. E. Shaw Ventures, MGX, TPG, and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates.
The new round would be bridge financing that provides capital in place of an IPO, according to Reuters’ summary of the Bloomberg report. TFN has tracked the delay. OpenAI has confidentially filed for a US IPO, and in August it completed a $7 billion employee tender offer at an unchanged $852 billion valuation, reportedly paid for with its own cash.
When Anthropic filed in June, PitchBook senior late-stage company research analyst Harrison Rolfes told TFN that OpenAI “now has a free option to watch how institutional investors react to audited frontier AI financials before committing to its own price.” A private round lets it keep that option open.
The revenue case for $1.4 trillion
Axios first reported, and Reuters confirmed through a source, that OpenAI’s annualised revenue run rate is nearing $70 billion, up more than 70% since the start of the third quarter. Enterprise sales more than doubled over the same period, and OpenAI earned more consumer revenue in the third quarter than in all of 2025. Axios could not learn OpenAI’s expenses, and a run rate is a current pace, not booked annual sales.
By TFN‘s calculation, a $1.4 trillion pre-money valuation is about 20 times that run rate. The figure fits the $40 billion-plus run rate TFN reported for July, citing Bloomberg.
The backers of that round also come with strings. Bloomberg reported that Amazon agreed to invest $50 billion, of which $35 billion depends on OpenAI going public or reaching an artificial general intelligence milestone. TFN reported the structure in February, along with $30 billion each from Nvidia and SoftBank. That contingency now sits beside a listing Altman says will not happen in 2026.
Anthropic sets the yardstick
Anthropic raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation in May, briefly overtaking OpenAI, and confidentially filed for an IPO on June 1. Reuters, which has seen its prospectus, reported on September 28 that the filing shows a $42 billion net loss in 2025 on revenue of nearly $4.6 billion, including a roughly $34 billion accounting charge, and $518 billion in planned cloud, computing, and infrastructure obligations. Its debut is likely to come after the November US midterm elections, at a valuation target above $2 trillion. TFN reported that it has picked Nasdaq.
So OpenAI’s investors are being asked to pay $1.4 trillion privately while Anthropic is likely to test public appetite first. If Anthropic lists above $2 trillion, they get a benchmark. If it stumbles, they will have paid up before seeing it.
