OpenAI is in talks with investors to raise at least $30 billion in a pre-IPO funding round at a valuation of about $1.4 trillion, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
Investors are hoping to pump more money into the ChatGPT maker ahead of its expected public market debut next year. Anthropic briefly outperformed OpenAI at the beginning of the year, but a recent strategic refocus on key areas such as coding has led to a 70% increase in run-rate revenue since July, reaching $40 billion in August, the report said.
The company previously raised $122 billion in March at a valuation of $852 billion. The funding round was supposed to be the company’s last private raise before its IPO, which until recently was expected to take place this year. However, CEO Sam Altman is currently ruling out a public release in 2026, as the safety of the AI is his number one priority.
Responding to warnings from safety researchers that AI poses an existential threat to humanity, he recently told Fortune magazine: “I don’t think it’s acceptable that there’s about a 10% chance that we’re all going to die by the end of this decade.”
According to Bloomberg, the new funding would be a bridge to an IPO.
OpenAI did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
