OpenAI Has Discussed Raising Tens of Billions at Valuation Around $750 Billion
The Takeaway
- OpenAI discusses raising new funding at $750 billion valuation
- Company aims to raise tens of billions, potentially up to $100 billion
- Annualized revenue recently topped $19 billion
OpenAI has held preliminary discussions with some investors about raising new funding at a valuation of around $750 billion, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. It could raise tens of billions of dollars, and as much as $100 billion, according to two of the people. Talks are early and nothing has been finalized.
A valuation at that level would be 50% higher than OpenAI’s last share sale in October and would add to its already substantial cash stockpile needed to train and run its AI models. It’s already started to line up funding in addition to the more than $60 billion it’s raised from investors including Thrive Capital, SoftBank and others. Amazon is in talks to invest $10 billion or more in the company.
It’s not clear which investors beside Amazon are considering investing and whether that valuation would include the new money. For a round of that size, OpenAI would likely need to tap a mix of strategic investors and sovereign wealth funds. It has already raised funds from the United Arab Emirates’ MGX and chip giant Nvidia. OpenAI has also talked to Saudi Arabia’s giant Public Investment Fund when it was raising money for its $41 billion, SoftBank-led round earlier this year, though OpenAI never disclosed any investment from PIF.
The decade-old AI developer can tout that revenue that has been growing quickly. By last month it was generating $19 billion in annualized revenue, putting it on track to hit its goal of $20 billion in annualized revenue by the end of the year.
The company is also on track to beat its 2025 total revenue goal of $13 billion, up from around $4 billion last year, according to one of the people. That figure should rise to $30 billion next year—and around $200 billion by 2030—on increased sales of ChatGPT subscriptions and new products, which could include advertising.
However, the company has forecast it will burn about $26 billion this year and next, en route to more than $100 billion in cash burn over the next four years as it spends money on servers and talent to develop and run its AI.
The discussions with potential investors in the fundraise mark a new high water mark for private investments in high-tech startups. Elon Musk’s SpaceX recently arranged a share sale that valued the rocket launch company at $800 billion, while Alphabet’s Waymo is discussing raising billions of dollars at a valuation of more than $100 billion.
The OpenAI fundraise, if successful, would also underscore investor confidence in OpenAI as it fights to retain its lead in AI usage against the much larger Google. Earlier this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told staff he was declaring a “code red” to focus staff on improving ChatGPT. The communication followed Google’s fall release of its Gemini 3 model, which was well received by software developers.
In late October, OpenAI successfully restructured itself as a public benefit corporation that could pave its path to going public. The company in the summer discussed going public in late 2026 or 2027, and it told investors that it expected to raise $90 billion in capital—which could be from a mix of private and public investors—in 2027. It is not clear how the new fundraise would impact any public listing efforts.
An OpenAI valuation of around $750 billion would mark up the value of a cadre of financial investors who have bought shares in the company in recent years. Just over a year ago, Thrive led a round that valued it at $157 billion before the investment. Then earlier this year, SoftBank led a round that valued the company at $260 billion. Still, the new valuation would represent just 25 times OpenAI’s expected revenue next year—far lower than some AI startups.