OpenAI cuts round to $20 billion at $1.25 trillion valuation

The revision marks a sharp turn from the terms OpenAI had been pursuing. The company had been seeking $30 billion at a $1.4 trillion valuation, and the new target of about $20 billion at $1.25 trillion represents a lower price as well as a smaller raise. According to the figures reported by CoinDesk and attributed to the Financial Times, only about $11 billion in commitments had been locked in, and the first close is expected below even the revised $20 billion floor. OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, had previously put off IPO plans until 2027.

The timing of the round appears to be shaped by competition for the same investors. UAE sovereign capital through MGX is the largest single participant, and that investment comes bundled with options for OpenAI to lease compute capacity in the region. OpenAI set a Friday commitment deadline partly to close before Anthropic's mid-November IPO, since both companies are drawing from the same institutional investor pool. Anthropic is reportedly seeking to raise as much as $100 billion at a $1.5 trillion valuation in that offering, moving in the opposite direction from OpenAI's trimmed private round.

The backdrop is a falling market. Anxiety about the AI boom has sent the Nasdaq 100 down by about 10% in just three weeks since hitting a record high on October 6, including a 4.5% drop on Friday. The CoinDesk piece names no investors beyond MGX, publishes no subscription timelines, and gives no breakdown of who pared back, with the Financial Times as its only cited source. Other coverage points to wider caution: S&P's concurrent credit downgrade of Meta, and Blackstone's warning that Anthropic may only clear a double-B junk rating after its IPO, suggest investors are becoming less enthusiastic about large private AI deals.