OpenAI is in discussions to raise up to $30 billion in a new funding round, aiming for a pre-money valuation of $1.25 trillion. This potential capital infusion would make the company the most valuable private entity in history. Sources familiar with the matter indicate that Coatue and investors from the United Arab Emirates are leading the round, with OpenAI seeking commitments by the end of next week.
The proposed $1.25 trillion valuation represents a decrease from the $1.4 trillion OpenAI reportedly sought earlier in October. The Financial Times reported that the company adjusted its target following resistance from some investors. Despite this revision, a valuation exceeding $1 trillion would still place OpenAI ahead of all other private companies. For instance, Anthropic, another prominent AI laboratory, was valued at $965 billion in May 2026 after a $65 billion funding round. OpenAI's previous major funding round, in March 2026, valued the company at $852 billion post-money.
The new funding is intended to serve as a bridge to a public listing. OpenAI confidentially filed initial public offering (IPO) paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in June. OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar informed employees in August that the company anticipates going public in 2027. The company projects substantial expenditure on computing infrastructure, with an estimated $600 billion by 2030. The deal with UAE investors may include a separate commercial agreement to provide OpenAI with additional computing capacity.
This funding round comes as OpenAI has demonstrated consistent revenue growth throughout 2026, driven by ChatGPT Plus subscriptions and enterprise API access. Investors are reportedly betting on OpenAI's capacity to maintain its leadership in large language models and expand into multimodal AI, reasoning systems, and autonomous agents.