OpenAI trims funding target to $1.25 trillion as negotiations enter final stage

OpenAI has lowered its private-market valuation target to $1.25 trillion as fundraising talks move into their final stage, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is aiming to raise roughly $30 billion in the current round, with the reduced valuation reflecting a $150 billion cut from earlier discussions that had floated a $1.4 trillion figure. Negotiations remain ongoing and specific terms may still change, sources said. The funding push is intended to close before rival Anthropic pursues an initial public offering expected around mid-November, people said. OpenAI's valuation expectations have shifted repeatedly in recent months. In September, the company began preliminary investor talks at a $1.2 trillion valuation, a figure then viewed as subject to change.

By late September, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI planned to complete a fundraising of at least $30 billion before any IPO, positioning the capital as a bridge to a later public listing. The company's most recent large round closed in March at a post-money valuation of $852 billion, raising $12.2 billion from investors including SoftBank, Andreessen Horowitz, D.E. Shaw Ventures, MGX, TPG and Temasek, with Amazon, Nvidia and Microsoft also participating. OpenAI has also expanded its revolving credit facility to about $4.7 billion with backing from multiple global banks. On the business front, OpenAI reported $6.7 billion in revenue for the second quarter of 2026, with an annualized run rate surpassing $40 billion by August and more than 1 billion active users.

The company has told investors it has scaled back its 2030 compute target to $600 billion and projects over $280 billion in total revenue that year. Chief executive Sam Altman has ruled out an IPO in 2026, citing a focus on AI safety, and recently told Fortune that a 10 percent chance of AI causing human extinction by decade's end would be unacceptable. The chief financial officer has indicated to staff that an IPO is most likely in 2027. IT Home reported the story.

Reported by ITHome.