OpenAI reportedly in talks to raise at least $30B at roughly $1.4T valuation

OpenAI is in talks with investors to raise at least $30 billion in a pre-IPO funding round that would value the company at roughly $1.4 trillion, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Investors are eager to pour more capital into the ChatGPT maker ahead of its anticipated public market debut next year.

The renewed investor interest comes even though Anthropic momentarily outpaced OpenAI at the start of the year. Since then, OpenAI’s recent strategic refocus on key areas like coding has fueled a 70% jump in its run-rate revenue since July, pushing it to $40 billion in August, according to the report.

The prospective round would follow OpenAI’s previous raise of $122 billion in March at an $852 billion valuation. That round was supposed to be the company’s last as a private business before an IPO, an offering that had, until recently, been expected to take place this year. CEO Sam Altman has since ruled out a public debut in 2026, saying he wants to prioritize AI safety first.

“I think it is unacceptable to be taking like a 10% chance of killing everybody by the end of the decade,” he recently told Fortune, responding to warnings from safety researchers about AI posing an existential risk to humanity. The new fundraising, if it transpires, will serve as a bridge round to the eventual IPO, Bloomberg reported. OpenAI did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

Why it matters

The new round would add billions more to OpenAI’s already massive funding total, even as its IPO keeps slipping — this time due to Altman’s own safety concerns rather than a lack of investor demand.