OpenAI in Early Talks for New Funding Round at $1.2 Trillion Valuation
The discussions follows a decision by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman not to pursue a public offering this year.
OpenAI has held early conversations with investors about a new funding round that could lift its valuation to $1.2 trillion or higher, according to people familiar with the conversations. The conversations come as OpenAI has pushed off a planned initial public offering to next year or later.
The potential funding follows interest by some investors in a new round, said one of the people. The company last announced a $122 billion funding round at a valuation of $852 billion, including the new investment, in March. Since then, its estimated value on the secondary market, as tracked by Caplight, has risen past $1 trillion as its Codex coding product gained in popularity and its recently released GPT-6 Astra model outperforms competitors in some areas. The Financial Times first reported on the funding talks.
OpenAI had previously planned an IPO as soon as late this year. But CEO Sam Altman said recently that an offering this year didn’t make sense amid rising concerns about AI safety. Rival Anthropic has been working on a planned IPO expected to be $1.5 trillion or higher.