OpenAI nears a $30 billion round at a lower $1.25 trillion valuation, reports say

What has been reported

OpenAI is close to raising up to $30 billion in a new private round that would value the ChatGPT maker at $1.25 trillion before the new money comes in. CNBC first reported the talks on 22 October 2026, citing people familiar with the deal who asked not to be named because the details were confidential. Those people said investors from the United Arab Emirates are leading the round alongside the investment firm Coatue.

The $1.25 trillion figure is a pre-money valuation, meaning it does not include the capital being raised. If the full $30 billion is raised at that price, simple arithmetic puts the post-money value at about $1.28 trillion. CNBC says the final size of the round is still being decided, so the amount that actually closes could be smaller.

According to CNBC, OpenAI told investors on Thursday, 22 October, that it wants signatures by the end of next week. TechCrunch noted that terms are still being negotiated and could change, and that OpenAI declined to comment. A valuation above $1 trillion would make OpenAI the most valuable private company ever, TechCrunch wrote.

Why the price came down

The $1.25 trillion figure is lower than OpenAI first wanted. The Next Web, summarising reports from the Financial Times and Bloomberg, says OpenAI originally pitched a $1.4 trillion valuation. The FT reported, citing documents it had seen, that some investors pushed back on the higher price, and Bloomberg put the reduction at $150 billion.

TechCrunch traces the earlier number to a Bloomberg report about a month ago, which said OpenAI was working on a $30 billion raise at $1.4 trillion. The amount being sought appears unchanged; what moved is the price. Even at the lower figure, investors are being asked to accept a far higher price than they paid only seven months ago.

For context, The Next Web and TechCrunch both report that OpenAI's last raise, in March, brought in $122 billion at an $852 billion post-money valuation. By AI Lookout's arithmetic, a $1.25 trillion pre-money price is roughly 47 percent above that March post-money figure. The new round would also be about a quarter of the size of the March raise, which fits the way it is being described: as a top-up rather than a war chest.

Who is leading the money

CNBC's sources say UAE investors are leading together with Coatue. Bloomberg, as cited by The Next Web, reported that Coatue is in talks to co-lead and that OpenAI has spoken to several UAE funds, among them Abu Dhabi's MGX, as well as to BlackRock. Coatue did not immediately respond to Bloomberg, and Bloomberg's sources also said details could still change.

CNBC adds that OpenAI began discussing a new round after investors approached the company with proposals in September. In other words, this round was at least partly investor-led in its origins, which helps explain why it is being described as opportunistic rather than as a raise the company urgently needs.

The role of Gulf capital is not new for AI companies, but the reported lead position here is notable. Large sovereign-linked funds can write cheques big enough to anchor a round of this size quickly, and the reported tie to a compute deal suggests the relationship may go beyond equity.

A bridge rather than a listing

CNBC reports that the financing is being positioned as an opportunistic bridge ahead of a potential initial public offering. OpenAI confidentially filed its prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in June but has not said when it plans to list.

The public signals on timing have been mixed. According to CNBC, OpenAI's chief financial officer Sarah Friar told employees in August that the company "will be a public company in 2027." The following month, chief executive Sam Altman said that "right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public." Bloomberg, cited by The Next Web, reported that OpenAI has pushed its IPO plans back to next year, citing its focus on AI safety.

A private round at more than a trillion dollars also sets a reference point for any later listing. TechCrunch points out that the valuation would raise the bar even higher for OpenAI's IPO: public investors would need to see a path to a value above the last private price, or early backers would face a down round at the moment the company goes public.

The compute bill behind the raise

The reason OpenAI keeps raising is the scale of its spending plans. CNBC reports that OpenAI told investors in February it is targeting roughly $600 billion in total compute spending by 2030. A $30 billion round covers only a small share of that, which is why the reported side deal matters.

Alongside the new investment, OpenAI is negotiating a commercial agreement that would secure more computing capacity from the UAE, according to one person cited by CNBC. Neither the size nor the form of that deal has been reported. Pairing equity with capacity has become a common pattern in AI financing, where the investor is also, directly or indirectly, a supplier of data centres, power or chips.

Price pressure on the revenue side adds to the picture. The Information recently reported that OpenAI is winning coding customers from Anthropic with deep discounts, a strategy that can grow usage quickly but also makes each new customer more expensive to serve in the short term. More capital buys time for that strategy to work.

The race with Anthropic

The competitive backdrop is Anthropic, which is moving toward a listing of its own. CNBC says Anthropic also filed confidentially in June and is meeting prospective investors, and that it is reportedly seeking a valuation of $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in its offering. Anthropic raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation in May. AI Lookout has covered the revenue and losses in Anthropic's draft IPO filing and its third-quarter revenue of $16.8 billion.

According to Bloomberg, as cited by The Next Web, OpenAI had been trying to close its round before Anthropic goes public, and investors expect Anthropic's IPO next month. TechCrunch adds that rumours suggest Anthropic's public S-1 filing could appear any day. If Anthropic lists first at a higher number, it would set a public benchmark that OpenAI's private price would inevitably be measured against.

The appetite for frontier labs is not limited to the two US leaders. In China, DeepSeek is reported to have raised about $15 billion in a round led by CATL and Tencent. The difference is scale: OpenAI's proposed top-up alone is roughly twice that amount.

What remains unconfirmed

Everything here rests on anonymous sources and documents seen by reporters. OpenAI has not announced the round, and it declined to comment to both TechCrunch and Bloomberg. The amount, the price, the list of investors and the compute agreement could all change before anything is signed.

The mood around AI stocks may matter too. The Next Web notes that the talks came during a weak week for AI shares, after results from Meta, whose future spending commitments reach $825 billion, and from Tesla raised fresh questions about AI spending, according to Bloomberg. A lower asking price may reflect that more cautious mood as much as anything specific to OpenAI.

What to watch next

The near-term marker is the signing deadline OpenAI gave investors: the end of next week. If the round closes, the details to look for are the final amount, whether the valuation holds at $1.25 trillion, which UAE investors are named and whether the compute agreement is announced alongside the equity.

The longer test is the IPO. A completed round at this price would give OpenAI more runway and a headline valuation, but it would also leave less room for error when the company eventually asks public markets to pay more. Anthropic's listing, expected first, will be the clearest early read on whether that is realistic.