OpenAI Seeks $30B at $1.4T Valuation Ahead of IPO
OpenAI is talking to investors about a new funding round of at least $30 billion. According to a Bloomberg report published on Tuesday, the round would value the ChatGPT maker at roughly $1.4 trillion. TechCrunch picked up the story, and OpenAI did not respond to its request for comment.
If the deal closes, it would be a pre-IPO round. Bloomberg describes it as a bridge between OpenAI's last private raise and its expected listing on the public markets next year.
A second "last round"
The timing stands out. In March, OpenAI raised $122 billion at an $852 billion valuation. That round was meant to be the final private raise before the company went public, and until recently the IPO was expected this year.
That plan has changed. CEO Sam Altman has ruled out a public debut in 2026 and says the company wants to put AI safety first. A later IPO leaves a gap to fill, and a bridge round is the usual way to fill it. If the new round happens at the reported figure, OpenAI's valuation would rise by more than half a trillion dollars in about six months.
Revenue is the main argument
Investors want in because the numbers are moving fast again. Anthropic briefly pulled ahead of OpenAI at the start of the year. Since then, OpenAI has narrowed its focus to a few core areas, with coding among the most important.
Bloomberg reports the results:
- Run-rate revenue has grown 70% since July.
- It reached $40 billion in August.
Run-rate revenue takes current earnings and projects them over a full year. It is a common growth metric for fast-scaling companies, though it is not the same as audited annual revenue. Even so, a 70% jump in a few weeks makes it easier to justify a price tag above $1 trillion. The competition with Anthropic also adds pressure. Both companies are now heading toward public markets, and Anthropic's own IPO preparations give investors another large AI lab to compare against.
Safety as the stated reason for the delay
Altman's explanation for pushing back the IPO is unusual for a company raising this much money. He is not pointing to market conditions or paperwork. He is pointing to existential risk.
Responding to safety researchers who warn that AI could threaten humanity, Altman recently told Fortune: "I think it is unacceptable to be taking like a 10% chance of killing everybody by the end of the decade."
That creates an obvious tension. OpenAI says it wants more time to get safety right before going public. At the same time, it is asking private investors for at least $30 billion more, at a much higher valuation, to keep scaling. The two goals are not necessarily in conflict, since safety work and model development both cost money. But the pitch now covers two things at once: rapid commercial growth and a promise to slow down where it matters.
What we know, and what we don't
Here is the confirmed picture, based on the reporting:
- Round size: at least $30 billion
- Valuation: about $1.4 trillion
- Purpose: bridge financing ahead of an IPO
- IPO timing: not in 2026, expected next year
- Previous round: $122 billion at $852 billion, in March
The report does not name the investors in the talks, and it does not say when the round might close. The talks may not produce a deal. The Bloomberg report frames the round as something that will happen "if it transpires."
The Bigger Picture
This suggests private capital is still willing to fund frontier AI at almost any scale, provided the revenue curve keeps pointing up. OpenAI's March round was already among the largest private raises on record. A follow-up only months later shows that "last private round" has become a flexible label.
For readers, the more interesting signal is the link between safety and timing. Altman is presenting the IPO delay as a safety decision, which comes as regulators and outside testers scrutinize frontier models more closely, including government evaluations of rogue agent behavior. It is worth watching whether the extra private time leads to visible safety commitments, or whether it mainly buys room to grow revenue before listing.
Next to watch: who leads the round, whether the $1.4 trillion figure holds, and whether the run-rate growth continues past August. The race with Anthropic toward public markets could also shape how both companies time their next moves.