OpenAI Nears $30 Billion Bridge Round at $1.25 Trillion Valuation

UAE and Coatue Set to Co-Lead

OpenAI is closing in on a funding round of up to $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation, with investors from the United Arab Emirates and the investment firm Coatue set to co-lead, according to a CNBC report citing people familiar with the talks. The company told investors on Thursday, October 22 that it aims to have agreements signed by the end of next week. The final size is not fixed and terms could still change. The $1.25 trillion figure is a pre-money valuation, meaning it excludes the new money from the round. No money has changed hands yet; the round closes only once documents are signed.

OpenAI has positioned the raise as an opportunistic bridge ahead of a potential initial public offering: a private round that buys time while listing preparations continue. The discussions began after an investor approached the company with an unsolicited proposal in September. The report did not specify what the new capital would fund, but OpenAI is negotiating a separate commercial agreement with UAE counterparts for additional computing capacity, and in February it told investors it targets roughly $600 billion in total compute spending by 2030.

The IPO track runs in parallel. OpenAI confidentially submitted draft registration paperwork to the SEC in June, without announcing a timetable. Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar told employees in August that the company expects to become a public company in 2027, and sooner if the business keeps accelerating. Chief Executive Sam Altman had sounded more cautious on September 12, saying that given everything happening on safety, going public now would be unwise.

OPENAI Slips 2.51% to $1,465.57

The private-market bid has not steadied the pre-IPO instrument. COINOTAG data shows OPENAI trading at $1,465.57, down 2.51% over the past 24 hours, inside a daily downtrend with a bearish MACD reading and an RSI of 37.6. The composite scoring puts the strongest support at $1,452.65, scored 100 out of 100, with the nearest resistance at $1,563.52 scored 82/100. Trading has not reached that support since the news broke: the 24-hour low sits at $1,457.60. Perpetual open interest stands near $15.3 million and the funding rate prints at 0.0025% per interval, light positioning for an instrument tracking a company of this size.

Anthropic's Filing Sets the Rival Price

The $1.25 trillion number sits well above where OpenAI stood in March, when it completed a $122 billion round at a $730 billion pre-money and $852 billion post-money valuation, with Amazon, NVIDIA and SoftBank among the backers, an increase of roughly 71%. It is nevertheless below the figures circulating this autumn. Investors first approached OpenAI in mid-September at valuations near $1.2 trillion, and subsequent reports moved between $1.4 trillion and a $1.5 trillion figure the company was said to prefer. A late-September report described a planned raise of at least $30 billion at about $1.4 trillion, adding that OpenAI's annualized revenue in August ran near $40 billion. At $1.25 trillion, the current ask undercuts all of them. In August the company also completed a roughly $7 billion secondary share sale that let employees cash out part of their stakes.

Rival Anthropic is moving on a similar clock, and its paperwork will give public markets the first hard look at either firm's books. Anthropic filed confidentially in June as well, after a May round of $65 billion at a $965 billion post-money valuation, and it is seeking an IPO valuation between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion. A Wall Street Journal review of the draft prospectus, published on Tuesday, October 20, put first-half net losses at $80.7 billion, of which $72 billion were paper charges tied to convertible notes and similar items. The public filing could come as soon as Friday, October 23, and a November listing is the working expectation, with some investors discussing a valuation near $1.5 trillion. Each company's private price is becoming the reference point for the other's debut.