OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman is holding talks with investors in the Middle East as part of early efforts to line up funding for a new capital raise that could reach at least $50 billion, according to Bloomberg. The discussions are understood to include meetings with major state-backed investment funds in Abu Dhabi, as Altman looks to secure backing for OpenAI’s next phase of growth.
The ChatGPT developer is aiming to raise $50 billion or more in the round, which could value the company in the range of $750 billion to $830 billion. Bloomberg said the discussions are still at an early stage and the final size and valuation could shift. OpenAI has also held recent talks with Amazon about a separate investment of around $10 billion.
Separately, CNBC reported that Altman is currently in the United Arab Emirates for the investment discussions, adding that the funding round could be wrapped up as early as the first quarter of the year.
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An earlier report from The Information had said OpenAI was exploring a funding raise worth tens of billions of dollars at a valuation of about $750 billion. The company has already drawn backing from Abu Dhabi based tech investor MGX and has partnered with G42 on plans to build a large scale data center in the United Arab Emirates.
Rival AI firms have taken a similar route. Competitors such as Anthropic and Elon Musk backed xAI have previously secured funding from Middle East investors as they look to cover the soaring costs of building advanced AI systems.
OpenAI, which is based in San Francisco, has outlined plans to spend as much as $1.4 trillion on AI infrastructure over the coming years, far more than it currently has on hand. The company is not yet profitable and continues to post multi-billion-dollar losses each year, even as competition intensifies from Google’s Gemini, Anthropic and xAI.
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OpenAI last year completed a $40 billion funding round led by SoftBank that put the company’s valuation at $300 billion. The deal, the largest private technology financing ever recorded, also drew backing from major investors including Microsoft, Blackstone, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital and Fidelity.
A few months later, OpenAI wrapped up a $6.6 billion secondary share sale, allowing existing investors to sell stock to a broader pool of global buyers. That transaction valued the company at around $500 billion.
Anthropic, the AI startup founded by former OpenAI employees, is also seeking fresh funding at a valuation of about $350 billion, according to Bloomberg.
As competition across the AI sector heats up and the cost of building and operating advanced models continues to climb, companies are increasingly turning to investors to finance core infrastructure and stay ahead of rivals. While OpenAI has remained the leading player in consumer AI since launching in late 2022, recent SimilarWeb data suggests it has begun to lose some ground to competitors, most notably Google’s Gemini.