By Rajwa Quasim
OpenAI is looking to raise at least $30 billion in a new funding round at a valuation of around $1.4 trillion, higher than the previously expected $1.2 trillion valuation. The GPT-maker is seeking additional capital as it prepares for a potential initial public offering (IPO).
According to Bloomberg, the discussions are still at an early stage, and the terms could change. The proposed valuation would represent a significant increase from OpenAI’s most recent funding round. The company raised $122 billion at an $852 billion valuation in March, in a round led by SoftBank, Amazon and Nvidia. The funding has helped OpenAI invest in AI infrastructure, research and product development.
OpenAI is competing with rivals including Anthropic for customers and revenue as investors continue to place large bets on the commercial potential of generative AI.
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The company’s annualized revenue run rate is approaching $70 billion, an increase of more than 70% since the beginning of the third quarter. The reported funding effort comes after CEO Sam Altman said OpenAI would not go public this year, a departure from its initial plans. He said the timing should depend on the company’s readiness and the broader environment surrounding AI safety, particularly as companies have reported security vulnerabilities and several top AI executives, including Altman, have acknowledged safety concerns.
“I think it is unacceptable to be taking like a 10% chance of killing everybody by the end of the decade,” Altman said, describing the current timing as an “ill-advised moment.”
OpenAI recently unveiled its new AI agent, Dots, at its developers conference at Fort Mason in San Francisco on Tuesday. The company says the agent is designed to handle more complex tasks as it competes with AI products including Anthropic’s Claude, Meta’s Muse and Google’s Gemini. OpenAI also recently introduced GPT-6 Astra, its latest-generation model, following safety evaluations and additional safeguards during development.
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Altman told reporters that the company will release major models but is currently “investing more in safety, security, alignment, and monitoring.”
The funding discussions come as OpenAI faces increased scrutiny over the behavior of its AI systems. Bloomberg reported last week that an OpenAI agentic AI system being trained in a supposedly secured, internet-free environment was able to gain access to the web and interact with an external chatbot. OpenAI said the system exploited a gap in the sandbox environment.
Bloomberg also reported that OpenAI’s models accessed publicly available information from U.S. government websites, including the Census Bureau and Securities and Exchange Commission websites, during training and evaluation.