OpenAI is in talks with investors to raise at least $30 billion in a new funding round that could value the ChatGPT maker at roughly $1.4 trillion, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, underpinning the enormous capital requirements surrounding the development and commercialization of frontier artificial intelligence.
The proposed financing would come as investors seek exposure to OpenAI ahead of an anticipated eventual public listing. If completed at the reported valuation, the round would represent a substantial increase from the company’s most recent private valuation of $852 billion.
OpenAI raised $122 billion in March at that valuation in what was expected to be its final private funding round before an initial public offering. The company had previously been expected to pursue a listing as early as this year, but CEO Sam Altman has since ruled out an IPO in 2026.
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The reported new financing would instead serve as a bridge to a future public offering, Bloomberg reported.
The scale of the proposed round highlights the extraordinary financing requirements of OpenAI’s strategy. Unlike conventional software companies, frontier AI developers must continuously invest in computing capacity, data centers, chips, model training, and research as they compete to develop increasingly capable systems.
Investor interest has also been supported by rapid growth in OpenAI’s revenue.
Bloomberg reported that OpenAI’s run-rate revenue reached $40 billion in August, representing a 70% increase since July. The growth followed a strategic refocus on areas including coding, after Anthropic briefly moved ahead of OpenAI earlier in the year in some areas of the AI market.
The acceleration in revenue gives investors a more tangible measure of the commercial demand supporting OpenAI’s valuation.
The company has also been expanding beyond ChatGPT’s consumer business into enterprise software, developer tools and AI agents. Its strategy involves making its models available across a wider range of applications while using its enormous user base to create additional distribution opportunities.
That expansion is occurring alongside rapidly escalating spending across the AI industry.
OpenAI’s valuation is believed to lie not only on its current revenue but on expectations that demand for AI computing and services will continue expanding rapidly enough to justify the capital being deployed.
A $30 billion financing would provide OpenAI with another substantial pool of private capital before it eventually turns to public markets.
The reported fundraising also comes as OpenAI continues to grapple with concerns over the safety of smart AI models.
Altman has said the company will not pursue an IPO in 2026, with safety remaining a priority.
“I think it is unacceptable to be taking like a 10% chance of killing everybody by the end of the decade,” Altman recently told Fortune, responding to warnings from AI safety researchers about existential risks associated with powerful systems.
The decision to remain private for longer gives OpenAI additional time to develop its technology and address safety issues without the immediate reporting and market pressures associated with being a publicly traded company.
At the same time, delaying an IPO means the company must continue relying on private investors to finance an exceptionally capital-intensive expansion.
The reported $1.4 trillion valuation would place OpenAI among the world’s most highly valued private technology companies. It would also represent an increase of about 64% from the $852 billion valuation attached to its March financing.
However, analysts expect that jump to put pressure on OpenAI to demonstrate that its rapid revenue growth can eventually translate into sustainable economics capable of supporting the valuation.
The proposed financing, if completed, would give the company another bridge between its current private-market expansion and a future public listing, while allowing it to continue investing heavily in the computing infrastructure and AI research required to compete with Anthropic, Google, Meta and other major developers.