OpenAI Pursues $30 Billion Funding Round at $1.4 Trillion Valuation as IPO Pushed to 2027

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OpenAI is in early talks to raise at least $30 billion at a $1.4 trillion valuation, serving as a bridge round before its delayed IPO. The ChatGPT maker has seen revenue surge 70% to $40 billion since July, but CEO Sam Altman prioritizes AI safety over a 2026 public debut.

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OpenAI Targets $30 Billion Funding Round at $1.4 Trillion Valuation

OpenAI is pursuing at least $30 billion in a new funding round that would value the company at approximately $1.4 trillion, according to reports from Bloomberg and The Information

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. The discussions are in early stages and terms could change, with investors driving demand for the round

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. This pre-IPO funding round would serve as a bridge to the company's anticipated public market debut, now expected in 2027 rather than this year

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The proposed $1.4 trillion valuation represents a significant 64% increase from OpenAI's March valuation of $852 billion, when it raised $122 billion in what was then Silicon Valley's largest funding round

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. That March round was anchored by major investors including SoftBank, Amazon, and Nvidia

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. SoftBank is reportedly raising approximately $11 billion in bonds to cover its next OpenAI payment

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Revenue Growth Fuels Investor Interest

OpenAI's revenue run rate has accelerated dramatically, reaching $40 billion in August after growing 70% since July

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. According to Axios, sources familiar with the financials indicate the annualized revenue run rate is nearing $70 billion, with business revenue more than doubling during the third quarter

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. On the consumer side, OpenAI added more revenue in the third quarter than it generated in all of 2025

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The company's renewed momentum stems from a strategic refocus on key areas like coding tools and AI agents that handle complex tasks

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. At its annual DevDay conference on Tuesday, OpenAI unveiled Dots, a new always-on AI agent positioned to compete with products like Meta's Muse

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. The company also introduced a premium subscription tier priced at $500 with higher usage limits and faster processing speeds, while reducing certain allowances for its $200 plan

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AI Safety Concerns Drive IPO Delay

CEO Sam Altman has ruled out an OpenAI IPO in 2026, citing the need to prioritize AI safety and adjust to new levels of AI capability

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. "I think it is unacceptable to be taking like a 10% chance of killing everybody by the end of the decade," Altman told Fortune, responding to warnings from safety researchers about existential risks posed by AI

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Altman described this year as an "ill-advised moment" for going public, telling Bloomberg TV that the company needs to "get our feet under us and make sure we understand how to operate in this new way, [and] be able to make some of these decisions in front of us without the pressure of being a newly public company"

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. He expressed confidence that investors will remain "patient" with the delayed timeline

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The safety concerns are not theoretical. OpenAI announced this week that it cancelled the launch of GPT-6.1 Astra after the model failed internal safety tests

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. The company has faced mounting scrutiny over potential catastrophic harm from AI, including cybersecurity breaches and incidents involving Australian government websites

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. Altman has endorsed a proposal from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to slow frontier AI development and introduce independent evaluators to assess safety

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. He also addressed these concerns before the UN Security Council earlier this month

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Competitive Landscape and Market Position

The $1.4 trillion valuation would potentially vault OpenAI back above Anthropic's most recent private market valuation

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. Both companies have filed confidentially to go public, with Anthropic expected to list as soon as this autumn at a valuation potentially exceeding $2 trillion

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. Anthropic's prospectus reveals the company lost $42 billion in 2025

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The funding round carries significant implications beyond OpenAI. Gil Luria, managing director at D.A. Davidson, told Reuters that "Oracle's fate is largely tied to the success of OpenAI, which represents around half of its compute backlog"

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. Oracle shares rose 5.3% following news of OpenAI's revenue growth

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However, challenges remain. Earlier this year, OpenAI missed internal targets for revenue and new users, raising concerns about sustaining data center commitments. CFO Sarah Friar flagged to colleagues that sluggish revenue growth could leave OpenAI unable to honor future computing contracts and separately raised doubts about the company's readiness to meet public-market regulatory requirements on Altman's preferred timeline, according to The Wall Street Journal

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. The bridge round addresses these concerns by providing additional runway while the company strengthens its operational foundation and safety protocols before facing the scrutiny of public markets.

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