OpenAI Hits $1.25 Trillion Valuation as Anthropic Moves Toward IPO

OpenAI has reached a valuation of $1.25 trillion through a new funding round that brought in $11 billion, according to Bloomberg, as reported by The Verge. That figure would place the company among the most valuable in the world.

The new round follows a March raise of $122 billion from investors, which valued OpenAI at $852 billion, The Verge reported.

Bloomberg says OpenAI is still working to bring in more money and could push the total as high as $20 billion. The company had first aimed for up to $30 billion at a $1.4 trillion valuation, but that plan came before a drop in tech stocks and before the midterm results made clear how much public sentiment has shifted against AI companies and data center projects.

The funding news arrives as rival Anthropic moves toward the public markets. Anthropic filed its S-1 last week, the first formal step toward an initial public offering.

OpenAI has taken a different path so far. CEO Sam Altman said earlier this year that the company is holding back on its own IPO until it can speak with more confidence about the safety of its models. He did not offer a timeline, though he said at the time that waiting too long to go public would also be bad for the world.

More recently, Altman said OpenAI is putting safety ahead of a fast push toward an IPO rather than going forward at full speed.

The gap between the two companies is now visible in their choices. Anthropic has started the regulatory process for a listing, while OpenAI remains private and continues to raise money from investors.

The reports also point to a tougher climate for AI fundraising. Falling tech stock prices and public resistance to AI firms and the data centers they build shaped OpenAI's expectations for this round, according to Bloomberg's account.