OpenAI Has Reportedly Raised $11B So Far at a $1.25T Valuation

OpenAI has reportedly raised $11 billion so far in a round that values the company at $1.25 trillion, per Bloomberg on November 6, TechCrunch wrote. The round has not closed, a source told Bloomberg, and it could reach about $20 billion. That is below the $30 billion target Bloomberg described in late September. OpenAI has not confirmed the round. TechCrunch said it asked the company for comment.

What Bloomberg reported

• $11 billion raised so far, at a $1.25 trillion valuation. Bloomberg cited sources familiar with the matter. TechCrunch published that account on November 6.
• The larger round has not closed. It is expected to close in the coming weeks and could total about $20 billion, a source told Bloomberg.
• In late September, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI was looking to raise $30 billion in the upcoming round. TechCrunch said the current figures fall well short of that target.

What Reuters reported

A Reuters report, carried by CNBC-TV18 on November 7, used a firmer verb for the same $11 billion. A source familiar with the matter said OpenAI has closed on $11 billion, the initial part of a round that values the company at $1.25 trillion. Two investors told Reuters that this $11 billion is only a portion of an original target of up to $30 billion, and that the valuation has come down from the $1.5 trillion level OpenAI had initially sought. Those investors said SoftBank and MGX participated. Reuters noted that Bloomberg had reported the funding earlier on Friday, November 6.

On October 30, the Financial Times reported, in an account Reuters published the next day, that OpenAI had already cut this round's target by $10 billion, to about $20 billion, and that the desired valuation had dropped to $1.25 trillion from $1.4 trillion. The FT said a first close was expected to raise less than $20 billion after some investors reduced their allocations. That October piece named investors it expected to participate. It is a separate report from the November comments that said SoftBank and MGX had participated.

The Anthropic comparison, as reported

TechCrunch, citing the same day's Bloomberg report, said some potential buyers of shares in Anthropic's IPO see a valuation as low as $1.1 trillion, against about $2 trillion that investors were said to expect a month earlier. The November 7 Reuters report gave a different Anthropic figure. It said some investors value that planned IPO at about $1.5 trillion, below earlier expectations of roughly $2 trillion. Neither figure is an Anthropic disclosure.

TechCrunch wrote that OpenAI had indicated it would go public this year and later delayed those plans, with an IPO expected next year. The October 31 Reuters story said OpenAI is pursuing a listing in 2027.

What we are watching

Nothing above is an OpenAI announcement. Bloomberg's account, via TechCrunch, still has the round open and possibly headed toward about $20 billion. Reuters' source described the $11 billion as closed, and called it the initial part of the round. SoftBank and MGX show up as participants in the Reuters investor comments, not in the Bloomberg account TechCrunch ran. The figure that would settle it is a close, a size, and a name list from OpenAI.