OpenAI Wants to Close Up to $30B Round at $1.25T Valuation Before Going Public

OpenAI has told investors it wants signed commitments for a funding round of up to $30 billion by the end of next week. According to CNBC reporting picked up by other outlets, the company's valuation would be around $1.25 trillion.

What we know about the round

CNBC reported the news on October 22, 2026, citing unnamed sources. According to PYMNTS, the size of the round is still being determined. OpenAI did not immediately respond to PYMNTS' request for comment.

SiliconANGLE, summarizing the CNBC report, writes that the round would be led by investors from the United Arab Emirates, with the US fund Coatue expected to take part. PYMNTS does not name any investors in its article, so that part rests on a single source.

The sources disagree on when the talks began: SiliconANGLE says the UAE investors first approached OpenAI in September, while PYMNTS says first contact came in December. SiliconANGLE also reports that OpenAI is considering a separate commercial deal with these investors covering more compute capacity in the Middle East.

Conflicting valuations

The reports do not agree on the valuation. CNBC gives $1.25 trillion (PYMNTS describes it as pre-money), while Reuters said it could exceed $1.4 trillion. These figures should therefore be treated as preliminary, not as settled terms of the deal.

For comparison, in March OpenAI raised $122 billion from Amazon, SoftBank and Nvidia, among others, at a post-money valuation of $852 billion, as SiliconANGLE notes.

A bridge to the IPO

The round is being presented as an "opportunistic" bridge meant to supply capital until a stock market debut. SiliconANGLE notes that OpenAI confidentially filed IPO documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in June. In August, Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar told employees that OpenAI "will be a public company in 2027," and less than a month later Sam Altman called going public in 2026 "ill-advised."

The backdrop is the race with Anthropic. According to PYMNTS, Anthropic could make its IPO filing public as soon as October 23, with a listing possible in November. Reuters, cited by PYMNTS, described OpenAI's moves as "unusually fast fundraising" ahead of its rival's market debut.

Pressure on revenue

PYMNTS, citing the Financial Times, writes that OpenAI told investors its annualized revenue was approaching $50 billion at the end of September. That is about $20 billion below the expected $70 billion. The same article notes that Anthropic's quarterly revenue rose from $4.8 billion to $11.6 billion and $16.8 billion over the first three quarters.

For Polish readers, this is mainly a signal of how fast the cost of entry to the top tier of AI labs is rising. For companies using the API and ChatGPT, the key question is whether such high valuations will push providers to raise prices or change subscription plans. So far, no source suggests that. Until the agreements are signed, the round remains an announcement, and its terms may change.