OpenAI is close to closing a round of up to US$30 billion at a pre-money valuation of US$1.25 trillion, led by investors from the United Arab Emirates and Coatue, according to CNBC and Reuters. Nothing has been signed or officially announced.
The Reported Numbers
Investing.com summarizes the CNBC and Reuters report: the valuation came in below the more than US$1.4 trillion that, according to Reuters, OpenAI was seeking earlier the same week. In other words, the company lowered its own expectations to close faster. OpenAI describes the round as "opportunistic," a bridge ahead of a possible public listing; CFO Sarah Friar reportedly told employees that a listing could happen in 2027.
Why the Timing Matters: Anthropic's IPO
The same report says Anthropic expects its IPO in November and is seeking a valuation of up to US$2 trillion, although some investors are pushing for a figure closer to US$1.5 trillion over doubts about its growth pace. Reuters adds that OpenAI wants to secure commitments before Anthropic's filings invite direct comparisons. We've already covered the valuation of Anthropic's IPO; this move shows that both companies are competing for the same capital and the same window.
The Market Context
The news comes in a week of jitters: an investinglive report notes that three AI infrastructure listings stalled within a month (Firmus Grid, at around US$5 billion; Airtrunk in Singapore; and Solidigm, from SK hynix) and that the Nasdaq had its worst week since June on fears about AI capital spending. These are data from a single outlet, so read them as a signal of sentiment, not as audited figures. For more on infrastructure financing, see also our analysis of Nscale and Firmus.
CNBC also reports that OpenAI is negotiating a commercial agreement for additional compute capacity in the UAE.
What This Means for a Company Buying AI
1. Your vendor has runway, but also pressure to grow. A valuation above one trillion dollars demands enormous revenue; that pushes toward higher prices, enterprise plans and locking customers in with commitments.
2. Avoid depending on a single provider. Build your applications with a model abstraction layer so you can switch from OpenAI to Anthropic or another provider if prices, limits or terms change.
3. Read IPO prospectuses as risk documents. When Anthropic and OpenAI publish their numbers, you'll be able to compare margins, compute dependence and customer concentration before signing multi-year contracts.
Sources: Investing.com (Oct 22, 2026), citing CNBC and Reuters; CNBC and GuruFocus headlines with the same figures; investinglive for the listings context.