OpenAI is accelerating efforts to secure investor commitments for a funding round of about $30 billion that could value the ChatGPT developer at more than $1.4 trillion, seeking to lock in capital before rival Anthropic’s expected stock market debut in mid-November, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The unusually compressed fundraising timetable highlights intensifying competition between the two leading AI developers for institutional capital, even as investors become more cautious about technology valuations, rising interest rates and the enormous cost of building artificial intelligence infrastructure.
SoftBank Group, Abu Dhabi-based MGX and other existing OpenAI backers are in discussions to participate in the proposed round, one of the people said. OpenAI held meetings with long-only investment funds and sovereign wealth funds last week, while Anthropic was hosting its own investor day.
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The accelerated process is partly intended to capitalize on OpenAI’s recent revenue growth and secure commitments before Anthropic’s anticipated initial public offering gives investors more information to compare the two businesses. Both companies are pursuing valuations in the trillion-dollar range, creating a contest for capital among investors who may have to make allocation decisions within a matter of days or weeks.
The fundraising also serves a broader financial purpose. OpenAI needs substantial resources to meet its infrastructure commitments, while additional capital could strengthen its balance sheet if deteriorating IPO market conditions delay its planned 2027 listing.
OpenAI Seeks to Establish Its Valuation Before Anthropic’s IPO
OpenAI is presenting investors with a growth narrative centered on expanding revenue, increased usage, and the potential to reduce the cost of delivering AI services.
According to one person familiar with the discussions, the company is telling investors that annualized revenue reached $50 billion following the launch of its GPT-6 Astra model, with management expecting the figure to rise to $70 billion by the end of the year.
Annualized revenue extrapolates a recent revenue run rate over 12 months. It provides an indication of business momentum but is not equivalent to revenue already earned over a completed financial year. OpenAI’s projected year-end figure therefore depends on its ability to sustain growth through the remainder of the year.
The company has also cut prices on some of its cheaper models, saying the reductions have boosted usage. OpenAI has told investors it believes it can lower model prices further, potentially making AI services accessible to more customers and increasing the volume of tasks performed through its products.
That strategy could help expand demand, although lower prices also raise questions about whether increased usage will translate into proportionately higher revenue and profit. For investors evaluating a company with a proposed valuation exceeding $1.4 trillion, the relationship between customer adoption, pricing and the cost of computing will be central to assessing its long-term economics.
Anthropic presents a formidable comparison. Its annualized revenue reportedly reached approximately $65 billion by July. The company told investors that quarterly revenue increased to $16.8 billion in the third quarter from $11.6 billion in the second quarter.
However, slowing month-to-month revenue growth has raised concerns among some investors about the valuation Anthropic can command in a public offering.
OpenAI is seeking to complete its fundraising before Anthropic’s financial disclosures provide a fuller picture of its business and invite more direct comparisons, one person said. Those disclosures could also prompt investors to demand greater detail from OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar about the company’s revenue trajectory, accounting practices and financial outlook.
Edward Best, co-chair of capital markets at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, who is not working on the transaction, said OpenAI could be seeking to establish its valuation independently of a rival’s public-market pricing.
“OpenAI could want to set its own valuation and not have to worry about a comp (comparison),” Best said, describing the situation hypothetically. “It’s really a two-horse race in terms of being public.”
OpenAI was valued at $852 billion in March following a record-breaking $122 billion funding round that included a commitment from Amazon to invest up to $50 billion. A new valuation above $1.4 trillion would represent a substantial increase from that level, making the terms and investor appetite for the proposed fundraising particularly significant.
The Layer of Revenue Accounting
The contest between OpenAI and Anthropic extends beyond growth rates to the way each company reports revenue generated through third-party cloud providers.
OpenAI records revenue on a net basis, deducting partners’ shares upfront. It has accused Anthropic of inflating its reported revenue by counting the full gross value of contracts sold through third-party cloud providers. Anthropic has told Reuters that it follows established accounting practices.
The distinction matters because gross and net revenue figures are not directly comparable. When a third-party provider receives part of the amount paid by a customer, reporting the entire contract value as revenue can produce a larger headline figure than reporting only the amount retained by the AI company.
Investors therefore need to understand the accounting treatment behind each company’s reported figures before using revenue multiples to compare their valuations. Differences in how cloud partnerships are recorded can complicate assessments of which company is growing faster or generating more revenue from its own operations.
The issue could become more prominent as Anthropic approaches its IPO, when public-market investors will have access to formal financial disclosures and greater opportunities to scrutinize its business model. OpenAI’s effort to finish fundraising beforehand could limit the extent to which its private valuation is immediately benchmarked against Anthropic’s public-market pricing, although it would not remove the need for investors to evaluate its financial performance independently.
Market Volatility Threatens the AI IPO Pipeline
The fundraising race is unfolding against a more difficult backdrop for technology companies seeking capital.
Several businesses preparing to go public have opted to wait until after Anthropic’s anticipated IPO, wary of competing for investor demand amid market volatility and a retreat in AI stocks, according to bankers and investors. Some late-stage companies are also adjusting the timing of private fundraising rounds to avoid coinciding with Anthropic’s expected debut.
Anthropic’s own valuation ambitions have come under pressure. Some existing and prospective investors have argued for a valuation closer to $1.5 trillion rather than the $2 trillion the company reportedly seeks, following third-quarter results that fell short of expectations, Reuters reported last week.
The reassessment reflects a broader shift in investor scrutiny. Rising bond yields can make high-growth investments less attractive by increasing the discount rate applied to future earnings, while volatile oil prices and concerns about AI safety have added uncertainty to technology valuations.
Investors are also examining the financing required to build the data centers that underpin AI development. The recent selloff in CoreWeave, whose shares and debt tumbled as investors scrutinized nearly $50 billion in borrowings used to fund its expansion, has intensified questions about the sustainability of debt-backed infrastructure spending.
The pressure has already affected several planned listings. Blackstone-backed AirTrunk REIT, Nvidia-backed Firmus and SoftBank-backed SB Energy have either withdrawn or paused their offerings. Nuclear services company Holtec cited a “perfect storm”, driven mainly by uncertainty around data-center demand, when it withdrew its US listing last month.
Companies in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, a widely followed gauge of AI-related semiconductor demand, have lost $1.6 trillion in market value in less than two weeks, while AI infrastructure businesses have faced particularly severe pressure.
These developments create a difficult environment for both OpenAI and Anthropic. Strong revenue growth and investor interest remain important advantages, but neither guarantees that markets will accept the valuations their backers are seeking.
OpenAI’s proposed $30 billion fundraising could provide additional financial capacity to support its infrastructure commitments and reduce its dependence on a favorable IPO window in 2027. Yet the accelerated timetable also exposes the pressure to secure capital before market conditions or a rival’s disclosures alter investor expectations.