OpenAI Cuts Fundraising Target to $20 Billion at $1.25 Trillion Valuation

From $30 billion to $20 billion

OpenAI has cut the scale of the private funding round it had been preparing, trimming the amount it seeks to raise to roughly $20 billion at a $1.25 trillion valuation, according to a Financial Times report published late Friday. The revised terms step down from the $30 billion raise at a $1.4 trillion valuation the company had previously pursued. In practice, both sides of the plan have moved: the raise is about a third smaller, and the valuation target sits roughly 11% below the earlier figure.

The market backdrop explains the timing. The Nasdaq 100 has lost about 10% in the three weeks since it set a record high on October 6, and it dropped another 4.5% on Friday as selling in technology shares accelerated. The report surfaced hours after that session closed, late on Friday. Valuation pressure has concentrated on AI-linked companies, and a private firm hoping to raise tens of billions cannot price a round without reference to where comparable public valuations now trade. OpenAI had already pushed its initial public offering back to 2027, which leaves private markets as its main financing channel for now. Nothing in the revision indicates the company lacks operational momentum; what has changed is the price investors will pay for a business of this scale. The report did not name the investors behind the revised round or give a closing date, so the final size of the raise remains unconfirmed.

Racing Anthropic for capital

The revised ask lands while OpenAI's closest rival prepares a much larger public debut. Anthropic plans to go public in November and is reportedly aiming to raise as much as $100 billion at a $1.5 trillion valuation, a target several times the size of OpenAI's reduced round. The two companies draw on the same institutional investor base, and Anthropic's November window now sits directly across the capital OpenAI wants to secure. With its own listing deferred to 2027, OpenAI's near-term financing runs through private markets, where a competing mega-round shapes both pricing and allocation.

The November timing matters for another reason. A listing that succeeds at a $1.5 trillion valuation would set a public reference point above the $1.25 trillion price OpenAI is now considering for its private round, and it would hand investors a direct alternative for AI exposure. Two years of steep growth expectations carried AI valuations rapidly higher, and private rounds priced off that optimism. The recent selloff has changed how investors set those prices. Appetite for very large rounds now tracks public market valuations more closely, and terms have tightened even where financing remains available. OpenAI's downward revision shows the repricing has reached the private side of the market rather than stopping at listed stocks. Future large AI financings will now be measured against the terms OpenAI has just accepted.

Company	Target raise	Target valuation
OpenAI	About $20 billion	$1.25 trillion
Anthropic	Up to $100 billion	$1.5 trillion

OPENAI slips 4.4% in 24 hours

The pre-IPO instrument tracking the company, OpenAI, last changed hands at $1,347.46, down 4.43% over the past 24 hours and near the lower end of a $1,339.12 to $1,424.50 range, COINOTAG data shows. The daily composite reads a downtrend, with a bearish MACD signal and a 14-day RSI of 33.5. COINOTAG's scoring puts the strongest support at $1,333.57, rated 92 out of 100, while the nearest resistance overhead sits at $1,444.63 with a score of 88/100. Perpetual open interest stands at $13,003,243, with funding at 0.0025% per interval, a level that leaves positioning largely neutral rather than crowded to one side. Until the market works back through that resistance band, the $1,333.57 support, at 92/100, is the nearest and strongest line below the price.