Bloomberg reported on September 29 that OpenAI is preparing a new funding round of at least $30 billion at a pre-money valuation of about $1.4 trillion. The report said talks are still at an early stage and terms could change, with demand for the round driven mainly by investors. OpenAI did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment.
The round is positioned as a bridge. According to Bloomberg, the funds are meant to tide the company over before it goes public, replacing an IPO that might otherwise have happened this year.
IPO Pushed to 2027
OpenAI had previously been expected to go public in 2026, and the company had already quietly filed for a listing with regulators. CEO Sam Altman later ruled out listing this year, citing AI safety. TechCrunch quoted him as saying:
"I think it is unacceptable to be taking like a 10% chance of killing everybody by the end of the decade."
The market now widely expects an IPO in 2027. The previous round closed this past March, with $122 billion committed and a post-money valuation of $852 billion; SoftBank, Amazon and Nvidia were the main backers. The report did not disclose the list of new investors this time.
In the same week, rival Anthropic's IPO filing is being pored over by the market. Reuters has previously reported that Anthropic's IPO valuation could exceed $2 trillion. One leading model maker is lining up to go public while the other is using a private round to buy time — both now valued above a trillion dollars.
What's Still Unknown
Bloomberg's report only gives the amount and the valuation range. Who will lead the round, whether SoftBank and Amazon will participate again, and the expected closing date all remain unannounced. Another undisclosed detail is whether the $30 billion includes an employee secondary sale. OpenAI has organized several employee share sales over the past two years, and if this round includes one, the amount of new capital actually reaching the company would be less than $30 billion.
The $1.4 trillion pre-money figure also needs context. It refers to the valuation before the new money comes in; the post-money valuation would be about $1.43 trillion. Compared with March's $852 billion post-money mark, that's an increase of more than 60%.
Doing the Math
Start with dilution. Against a $1.4 trillion pre-money valuation, $30 billion buys new investors a stake of roughly 2.1%, barely denting existing shareholders.
Next, the valuation multiple. The report says OpenAI's annualized revenue was about $40 billion in August; against a $1.4 trillion valuation, that puts the price-to-sales ratio at roughly 35x. The report gives no comparable revenue figure for the March round, so it's not yet clear how much of the 60%-plus jump in valuation has been absorbed by revenue growth.
Finally, how long the money lasts. OpenAI's compute contracts signed over the past year often run into the hundreds of billions of dollars; a single Oracle contract alone is in the range of $300 billion, paid out over multiple years. Set against that, $30 billion is roughly a tenth of that one contract's total value. By that measure, this round looks more like a cash buffer for the year or two before an IPO than fuel for the next round of large-scale expansion.
Whether the valuation holds up depends on two things: the price the secondary market sets at the 2027 IPO, and whether OpenAI can keep its annualized revenue growing at its current pace. Neither is knowable yet.
Sources: Bloomberg, TechCrunch, CocoLoop, Reuters; the funding amount and valuation are on a pre-money basis, annualized revenue is on a media-reported basis, and OpenAI has not commented on this round.