OpenAI is closing in on a funding round of as much as $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation, led by UAE investors and Coatue, according to people familiar with the matter. The company has asked investors to sign by the end of next week, though the final amount has not been set. Adding the full $30 billion would bring the post-money valuation to about $1.28 trillion, a record for any private company.
The financing is described as an “opportunistic” bridge ahead of a potential 2027 IPO. OpenAI began talks in September after investors approached it, and the current terms can still shift before signatures. The $1.25 trillion figure is below the more than $1.4 trillion previously reported, reflecting weaker investor demand and caution over the heavy cost of AI infrastructure, according to the Financial Times. OpenAI’s last reported valuation was $852 billion post-money in March 2026 after raising $122 billion in committed capital from backers including Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank.
Alongside the financing, OpenAI is negotiating a commercial deal to secure additional computing capacity from the UAE. In February, the company told investors it targets roughly $600 billion in total compute spending by 2030. Existing backers SoftBank Group and Abu Dhabi’s MGX have also held talks about joining the round.
OpenAI confidentially filed its prospectus with the SEC in June. CFO Sarah Friar told employees in August that OpenAI “will be a public company in 2027,” while CEO Sam Altman said the following month that “right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public.” Rival Anthropic also filed confidentially in June and is reportedly seeking a valuation between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion in its listing, after closing a $65 billion round at a $965 billion valuation in May. OpenAI told investors that the release of GPT-6 Astra pushed annualized revenue to $50 billion, with a possible $70 billion figure by year-end.
