- OpenAI is targeting a $1.25T pre-money valuation, down from the $1.4T it pitched to investors.
- The ChatGPT maker wants up to $30B, and investors have until October 30 to commit.
- Some backers would rather wait for Anthropic’s IPO, according to the Financial Times.
OpenAI is asking investors to pay less than it first suggested. The ChatGPT maker is nearing a round of up to $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation, down from the $1.4 trillion presented to investors earlier this month, the Financial Times reported. If the full $30 billion comes in, the post-money valuation would be about $1.28 trillion.
Morgan Stanley and Dragoneer had shown the higher figure to private wealth clients, according to documents the FT saw. Coatue and funds from the United Arab Emirates are reportedly discussing leading the round, which could close below $30 billion if demand falls short. OpenAI declined to comment.
Investors pause after a record raise
OpenAI, founded in 2015 and led by Sam Altman, raised $40 billion in March 2025 and a record $122 billion in March 2026 at an $852 billion post-money valuation. It then closed a $7B tender offer at the same $852B valuation. The new target sits about 47% above that mark, but appetite looks thinner than it did in March.
Some investors are suffering what the FT’s sources called “indigestion” after writing large cheques into earlier rounds. Benzinga’s account of the report captured the mood as “a bit of a thud”. TFN had earlier reported that OpenAI was racing to lock in $30B at $1.4T and that it was in talks with UAE funds and BlackRock at a fixed price. That fixed price has now moved.
Anthropic sets the yardstick
The bigger reason for the hesitation is Anthropic. It raised $65B at a $965B post-money valuation in May 2026, led by Altimeter, Dragoneer, Greenoaks and Sequoia, and the round included about $15 billion of previously committed hyperscaler money. That put it ahead of OpenAI. The company, co-founded by siblings Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei among others, has since filed for an IPO.
Harrison Rolfes, senior late-stage research analyst at PitchBook, 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. Investors seem to have noticed the same thing. Jimmy Chang, chief investment officer at Rockefeller Global Family Office, which holds exposure to both companies, put the stakes plainly: “The market needs to see a successful IPO. These companies need funding.”
The field is crowded. Anthropic raised $30 billion in Series G at a $380 billion valuation in February 2026, and xAI, maker of Grok, is now part of SpaceX following a February 2026 merger. OpenAI’s own listing talk has been running alongside all of it.
The compute bill behind the discount
Investors are also weighing what all this capital buys. J.P. Morgan Global Research projects AI capital expenditure could reach $900 billion in 2026 and $5.5 trillion cumulatively by 2030. The reported terms of the OpenAI round include a right of first refusal on new computing power built by its UAE partners, the FT said, which would give the company priority access to scarce capacity.
A $150 billion cut, or 10.7%, is not a collapse. OpenAI’s valuation is still about 47% above its last round. But the earlier price was set when demand was easier, and the gap between $1.4 trillion and $1.25 trillion shows how much the market now wants evidence, such as an Anthropic listing, before paying up. The October 30 deadline will show whether OpenAI gets the full $30 billion.
