OpenAI races to raise $30 billion at $1.4 trillion valuation ahead of Anthropic IPO
The ChatGPT developer is accelerating its fundraising to secure commitments before its rival’s expected mid-November listing. The push comes as both companies court overlapping investors amid growing scrutiny of AI valuations and infrastructure costs.
OpenAI is accelerating efforts to secure approximately $30 billion in new funding before rival Anthropic’s expected stock market debut in mid-November, in a fundraising round that could value the ChatGPT developer at more than $1.4 trillion, Reuters reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The unusually compressed timetable reflects intensifying competition between the two AI developers for capital from sovereign wealth funds and institutional investors. SoftBank Group, Abu Dhabi-based MGX and other existing OpenAI backers are in talks to participate in the round, according to Reuters. OpenAI and SoftBank declined to comment, while Anthropic and MGX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The timing also reflects OpenAI’s desire to capitalize on accelerating revenue growth following the launch of its latest models, while securing commitments before Anthropic’s anticipated IPO forces investors to compare the two companies’ financial performance and growth prospects more directly.
OpenAI held meetings with long-only investment funds and sovereign wealth funds last week, as Anthropic hosted its own investor day. The funding round is expected to move faster than is typical for a transaction of its size, according to the people cited by Reuters.
The fundraising push comes as both companies pursue valuations exceeding $1 trillion, even as investors grow more cautious about technology stocks, rising interest rates and the cost of financing the infrastructure required to develop and operate increasingly powerful AI models.
OpenAI was last valued at $852 billion in March, following a record-breaking $122 billion funding round that included a commitment from Amazon to invest up to $50 billion. The new fundraising effort would put the company’s potential valuation substantially higher, although neither the final amount to be raised nor the valuation has been confirmed.
OpenAI is pitching investors on annualized revenue of $50 billion, which it expects to reach $70 billion by the end of the year, according to one person familiar with the matter. The company attributes the recent acceleration in part to the launch of its GPT-6 Astra model.
OpenAI has also reduced prices for some of its cheaper models, saying the move has increased usage. The company has told investors that it sees further opportunities to lower the cost of AI models.
Anthropic, meanwhile, reported quarterly revenue of $16.8 billion in the third quarter, up from $11.6 billion in the second quarter and $4.7 billion in the first. Its annualized revenue had reached approximately $65 billion by July.
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Despite the growth, a slowdown in Anthropic’s month-to-month revenue expansion has raised questions among investors about the valuation it can command in a public offering. Some existing and prospective investors have argued that a valuation closer to $1.5 trillion would be more appropriate than the $2 trillion figure the company has sought.
OpenAI is seeking to complete its fundraising before Anthropic’s financial disclosures provide investors with a fuller picture of its business, according to one person familiar with the matter. Those disclosures could prompt investors to demand more detail from OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar about revenue growth, financial performance and the company’s outlook.
The two companies also differ in how they account for revenue. OpenAI records revenue on a net basis, deducting partners’ shares upfront. It has accused Anthropic of overstating its revenue by counting the gross value of contracts sold through third-party cloud providers. Anthropic has said it follows established accounting practices.
Beyond competition for investors, OpenAI needs capital to meet substantial infrastructure commitments and strengthen its balance sheet in case worsening public-market conditions delay its planned 2027 IPO.
The funding push comes amid growing scrutiny of the financial commitments underpinning the AI boom. Developing and operating frontier models requires vast computing capacity, while the data centers needed to support that demand are increasingly being financed through debt.
Recent market volatility has raised questions about whether investors will continue to support the sector at the valuations sought by private AI companies and infrastructure providers. CoreWeave, a cloud computing company that has expanded rapidly to serve AI workloads, saw its shares and debt come under pressure last week as investors scrutinized nearly $50 billion in borrowings used to finance its growth.
The uncertainty has also disrupted the IPO market. Several companies preparing to list, including Blackstone-backed AirTrunk REIT, Nvidia-backed Firmus and SoftBank-backed SB Energy, have pulled or paused their offerings, while nuclear services company Holtec withdrew its U.S. listing plans last month.
Companies in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, a widely watched gauge of the semiconductor industry and a proxy for AI-related chip demand, have shed $1.6 trillion in market value in less than two weeks.
Reuters contributed to this report.
