OpenAI nears $30 billion round that would value it at $1.4 trillion

OpenAI is in talks with investors to raise at least $30 billion in a funding round that would value the ChatGPT maker at roughly $1.4 trillion, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. OpenAI did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment on the report.

Investors are reportedly eager to put more money into the company ahead of an anticipated stock market listing, or initial public offering (IPO), expected next year. Bloomberg’s report noted that Anthropic, a rival AI lab, briefly pulled ahead of OpenAI earlier this year, but a strategic push into areas such as coding tools has since helped drive OpenAI’s run-rate revenue, a yearly pace based on current monthly sales, up 70% since July to reach $40 billion in August.

The talks follow OpenAI’s previous funding round, which closed in March at $122 billion and valued the company at $852 billion. That round had been described as OpenAI’s last private raise before going public, with a listing once expected to happen sometime this year. According to Bloomberg, the new round would function as a bridge, additional private funding meant to carry a company through to its public listing, rather than a replacement for the planned IPO.

Why the IPO timeline slipped

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, has now ruled out a public debut in 2026, saying the company needs to prioritize AI safety first. His comments came in response to warnings from safety researchers that advanced AI systems could pose an existential risk to humanity. “I think it is unacceptable to be taking like a 10% chance of killing everybody by the end of the decade,” Altman told Fortune, according to the TechCrunch report.

That framing puts OpenAI in an unusual position for a company its size: still raising enormous sums of private capital, at an ever-higher valuation, while its own CEO publicly links the pace of its path to public markets to unresolved safety questions. Neither Bloomberg’s report nor OpenAI’s own statements, as relayed by TechCrunch, specify which investors are involved in the new round or what safety milestones might need to be met before an IPO moves forward.

What happens next depends on two separate tracks. One is financial: whether the $30 billion round closes near the reported $1.4 trillion valuation, and which investors sign on. The other is the IPO itself, now expected in 2027 rather than this year, and contingent on the safety work Altman has cited. OpenAI has not confirmed the fundraising talks, so the terms described by Bloomberg should be treated as unconfirmed until the company or its investors say otherwise.