OpenAI closes $11 billion at a $1.25 trillion valuation, short of its original target

How much did OpenAI raise, and at what price?

OpenAI has closed on new funding of roughly $11 billion, the initial part of a round that values the company at $1.25 trillion, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg. The money was wired to the company as of Friday, and the rest of the round is expected to be completed in the coming weeks; one person said the total could increase to as much as $20 billion.

The $11 billion is the opening slice of a larger round that has not closed yet, Bloomberg reported, and TechCrunch confirmed the figures with its own summary of the Friday report. OpenAI declined to comment on the details.

For context, the company raised $122 billion in a March funding round at an $852 billion valuation, making the new $1.25 trillion mark a roughly 47 percent increase in less than eight months.

Why is the raise smaller than OpenAI wanted?

OpenAI initially set out to raise $30 billion or more at a $1.4 trillion valuation, Bloomberg reported in late September and reiterated this week. The current figures fall well short of that target, and the scaling back happened as the market for AI stocks deteriorated sharply.

The sentiment shift followed the November 5 U.S. midterm elections, in which Democratic candidates swept, and voters passed the majority of dozens of data center-related ballot measures, many of them imposing new restrictions on construction and energy use. That created concerns about new roadblocks for data center development and triggered a broader tech selloff that erased billions from AI-linked stocks.

TechCrunch described the situation as the AI market sitting in a particularly precarious place, with the Democratic landslide and overwhelmingly negative voter sentiment around data centers causing jitters throughout the market and raising expectations of potential regulatory challenges.

Bloomberg framed the reduced goals as a stark shift for a fundraising juggernaut that helped usher in the current AI boom. The sentiment around AI has changed dramatically since the round kicked off, the outlet reported, due to concerns about the industry's spending spree on data centers and the possibility of new construction roadblocks after the midterms.

What does this mean for OpenAI's IPO plans?

OpenAI has been in talks for more than a month to raise a large funding round after delaying its plans for an initial public offering. CEO Sam Altman said recently that the company is prioritizing safety instead of going "guns blazing" toward an IPO, according to The Verge, and he has not given a specific timeline.

The Verge noted that OpenAI is still pursuing additional investments that could push the round to $20 billion, echoing FT and Wall Street Journal reports from last week. There are expectations the company could go public next year at some point, TechCrunch reported, after previously intimating it would list this year.

The timing and price both matter: the smaller raise means OpenAI is taking in less cash at a lower price than it wanted, while the open question of an IPO hangs over the company.

How does this compare to Anthropic's IPO situation?

OpenAI's main rival Anthropic filed its S-1 to go public last week. Potential buyers of shares in Anthropic's IPO are now eyeing a substantially lower valuation than Anthropic had targeted, Bloomberg reported the same day as the OpenAI news, with some buyers believing the valuation could be as low as $1.1 trillion compared with a $2 trillion expectation floated about a month ago.

As we covered last night, Anthropic's IPO valuation target has already slid to roughly $1.1 trillion to $1.3 trillion after the AI market rout. The two companies' funding and listing prospects are being shaped by the same forces: investor skepticism about AI infrastructure spending, the post-midterm political environment, and a public market that has turned against AI stocks.

The contrast with Anthropic's situation gives the OpenAI round a clearer read: even the best-funded private AI company is now raising at a haircut, and its main competitor is preparing to test the public market under the same conditions.

What should readers take away?

The headline number is the valuation: OpenAI is now worth $1.25 trillion by Bloomberg's account, one of the most valuable private companies in the world. But the direction matters more than the level. OpenAI wanted $30 billion at $1.4 trillion and is closing $11 billion at $1.25 trillion, a gap that shows how quickly the AI funding climate has cooled.

The money still lands: $11 billion is not a small round by any standard, and the round may grow to $20 billion. But the scale-back confirms that the post-midterm rout is not just noise in public stocks — it is changing the terms of private AI deals too.