OpenAI in talks for $30B round at a $1.4T valuation

OpenAI is in talks with investors to raise at least $30 billion in a pre-IPO round at a valuation of roughly $1.4 trillion, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

Investors are eager to put more money into the maker of ChatGPT ahead of its anticipated arrival on the public market. Although Anthropic briefly overtook OpenAI earlier this year, a recent strategic refocus on key areas — coding in particular — has driven a 70% jump in run-rate revenue since July, reaching $40 billion in August.

A second "final" round

OpenAI's previous raise came in March, when it pulled in $122 billion at an $852 billion valuation. That was supposed to be its last private round before an IPO, which until recently had been expected this year.

But CEO Sam Altman has now ruled out a 2026 debut, saying he wants to address AI safety first. "I think it is unacceptable to be taking like a 10% chance of killing everybody by the end of the decade," he told Fortune, responding to warnings from researchers that AI poses an existential risk to humanity.

If the new raise goes through, it will serve as a bridge round on the way to the IPO, according to Bloomberg. OpenAI did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment.

Source: TechCrunch