OpenAI is reportedly close to raising up to $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation, in a round led by Coatue and investors in the United Arab Emirates — a price tag that has slipped about $150 billion from what the company was pitching just weeks ago. Sources familiar with the talks told CNBC, which first reported the terms; OpenAI declined to comment.
The fundraising is being positioned as an “opportunistic” bridge ahead of a potential initial public offering, CNBC reported. OpenAI told investors on Thursday that it is aiming to secure signed commitments by the end of next week, though the final size of the round is still being worked out.
The UAE money may come with infrastructure attached. According to CNBC, the Gulf investment could be coupled with a separate commercial arrangement giving OpenAI access to more computing capacity out of the UAE — a detail that matters given how much of the company’s spending goes toward chips and data centers. OpenAI has said it is aiming for roughly $600 billion of total computing spend by 2030.
What makes this round notable is not just its size but the moving price. About a month ago, Bloomberg reported OpenAI was working on a $30 billion raise at a $1.4 trillion valuation. Last week, Reuters reported the company was seeking commitments for a round of roughly the same size at a potential valuation above $1.4 trillion, with SoftBank, the Abu Dhabi-based fund MGX, and other existing backers in talks. Earlier this month, OpenAI had presented a fixed $1.4 trillion pre-money price to prospective backers, including BlackRock and MGX, according to AI Weekly.
The $1.25 trillion figure now under discussion is roughly $150 billion below that pitch, reached in a matter of weeks. The two reports do not establish that financing has closed, and the different valuation figures have not been reconciled — a sign the final structure is still being negotiated as the company gathers commitments.
Context matters here. OpenAI’s last round, in March, valued the company at $852 billion post-money. It filed confidential paperwork for an IPO in June, and chief financial officer Sarah Friar has told staff that a listing would likely arrive in 2027, CNBC reported. Should OpenAI command a valuation of more than $1 trillion with this round, it would break records as the most valued private company ever, TechCrunch noted — and it would reset expectations for whatever valuation the company eventually seeks on public markets.
The timing is not happening in a vacuum. Reuters framed the accelerated fundraising as a bid to secure investor commitments before Anthropic’s expected public debut, with both companies courting overlapping investors. Anthropic raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation in May, also filed confidentially to go public in June, and is reportedly seeking a $1.5 to $2 trillion valuation for its own public debut, CNBC reports. Rumors suggest Anthropic’s public S-1 filing could arrive any day — though, like OpenAI’s round, that remains a rumor, not a fact.
Analysis: The number to watch in this story is not really the $30 billion — it is the $1.25 trillion, and the fact that it has already moved. A late-stage bridge round at a headline $1.25 trillion valuation would anchor what public investors consider a reasonable IPO price, simply because it is the freshest datapoint. But the company’s bigger test is whether it can fund and lock in enough compute without its $600-billion-by-2030 ambition turning into a long-running cash drain. For context on the rival capital race, see our coverage of Anthropic’s leaked IPO filing — and until signatures are on paper, every figure in this story should be read with the caveat both outlets attached: terms are still being negotiated.
