Abstract:
OpenAI has received approximately US$11 billion in a new round of financing, with the company valued at US$1.25 trillion. However, this funding is only the first phase of this round of financing, and the entire financing plan has not yet been completed. It is expected to continue to advance in the next few weeks, and the final scale may reach 20 billion US dollars.
Bloomberg quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that investors had transferred approximately US$11 billion to OpenAI accounts on Friday. Under current arrangements, the remaining funds are expected to arrive in the coming weeks. If it ultimately reaches $20 billion, the size of this round of financing will be significantly higher than what has been completed so far, but still lower than the company's original target.
In fact, OpenAI initially hoped to raise US$30 billion or more through this round of financing, with the target valuation once reaching US$1.4 trillion. As financing negotiations progressed, the company subsequently lowered its financing target to approximately US$20 billion and its valuation to US$1.25 trillion. Today, the first batch of funds received is only US$11 billion, reflecting a clear gap between the financing process and the original vision.
This is closely related to recent changes in the capital market environment of the artificial intelligence industry. In the past period of time, investors' enthusiasm for artificial intelligence companies has cooled down, and the technology stock market has undergone significant adjustments. The market has begun to pay more attention to whether the huge infrastructure investment of AI companies can be converted into sufficient business returns. Huge expenditures on data center construction, advanced chip procurement, and power supply have also raised more questions among investors about the industry's long-term profitability.
The results of the U.S. midterm elections further increased market uncertainty. The Democrats scored a clear victory, while voters in many areas expressed strong opposition to the construction of large data centers. This means that future data center projects may face more stringent regulations, approvals and community resistance. For OpenAI, which is highly dependent on computing resources, these changes are not only related to the speed of infrastructure expansion, but may also affect future capital expenditure plans.
At the same time, OpenAI’s main competitor Anthropic is also preparing to go public. Bloomberg previously reported that some potential investors’ expectations for Anthropic’s listing valuation have dropped significantly, and some even believe that its valuation may be as low as US$1.1 trillion, whereas the market once expected its valuation to reach approximately US$2 trillion. The financing and listing plans of the two companies are jointly reflecting changes in the capital market valuation system of the artificial intelligence industry.
OpenAI previously expressed its intention to go public in 2026, but subsequently postponed related plans. Currently, the market generally expects that the company may launch an initial public offering at some point in 2027. However, the specific launch time has not yet been officially confirmed.
It is worth noting that OpenAI completed a financing round of US$122 billion in March this year, and the company was valued at approximately US$852 billion at that time. Now the company's valuation has further risen to US$1.25 trillion, which means that investors are still willing to pay a very high premium for its leading position in the field of artificial intelligence. However, the financing target has been reduced from the original more than US$30 billion to the current planned US$20 billion, which also shows that the capital market is no longer pursuing the AI concept as unreservedly as before.
For OpenAI, this $11 billion financing can provide important financial support for subsequent model research and development, computing infrastructure construction and commercial business expansion. However, in the context of increasingly fierce competition, expanding infrastructure investment, and increasingly complex regulatory environment, how to prove that these huge investments can ultimately bring sustainable revenue and profits will become the core issue that companies must face in the next stage.
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