OpenAI has held preliminary discussions with investors about a new private funding round that could value the ChatGPT maker at approximately $1.2 trillion, although the talks remain at an early stage and may not result in a transaction.
The discussions were initiated largely by investors rather than OpenAI, according to the Financial Times report that first disclosed the potential financing. The newspaper said the proposed valuation could change as talks develop and that the timing of any deal may depend partly on OpenAI’s plans for an initial public offering.
March Financing Provides the Benchmark
Any new round would follow the company’s record capital raise earlier this year. In an announcement dated March 31, OpenAI said it had closed $122 billion in committed capital at a post-money valuation of $852 billion. The company identified Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank as anchor investors, while Microsoft continued its participation as a long-term partner.
OpenAI’s announcement also listed a broad group of institutional backers, including a16z, MGX, TPG, BlackRock-affiliated funds, Blackstone, Fidelity, Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital and Temasek. More than $3 billion of the round came from individual investors participating through bank channels.
A $1.2 trillion valuation would represent an increase of roughly $348 billion, or about 41%, from the $852 billion post-money figure announced in March.
The possibility of another raise illustrates the extraordinary amount of capital flowing toward frontier artificial intelligence. It also reflects the unusually high cost of developing and operating advanced models. OpenAI said in March that durable access to computing capacity was central to its strategy, with its infrastructure spread across cloud providers including Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon Web Services, CoreWeave and Google Cloud.
An IPO Is Not Expected This Year
The discussions leave a broader question hanging over OpenAI: how long it intends to remain privately held. Another private funding round could provide the company with greater flexibility before deciding whether to pursue a public listing.
Altman has said OpenAI did not feel pressure to pursue a listing immediately and pointed to the work still required on safety, alignment and cooperation between industry and governments. When asked whether a 2026 flotation was off the table in favor of 2027, he answered that it would not happen in 2026.
Remaining private gives OpenAI greater room to negotiate directly with selected investors, but another financing at a substantially higher valuation could shape the expectations surrounding an eventual listing. Public-market investors would have to assess whether the company’s revenue growth, capital requirements and long-term commercial prospects support a valuation established through private transactions.
Private Markets Reassess OpenAI
The reported discussions suggest that investors are already reassessing OpenAI’s value only months after its March financing. Moving from $852 billion to a possible $1.2 trillion would be a significant step, but the higher figure remains part of an early conversation rather than an agreed price.
Private valuations are shaped by the terms of each transaction and do not necessarily provide a complete measure of a company’s financial performance. Any eventual deal would be judged not only by its headline valuation, but also by the capital raised, the rights granted to investors and the ownership stake exchanged.
OpenAI enters those discussions with substantial funding already secured and no immediate commitment to the public markets. Whether the talks develop into another round will depend on the terms available and the company’s appetite for additional private capital.
