OpenAI Closes $11 Billion First Tranche at $1.25 Trillion Valuation as AI Funding Cools

OpenAI has closed the first $11 billion of a new funding round that values the ChatGPT maker at $1.25 trillion, a deal that sets a new private-market benchmark for the company even as it falls well short of what it originally sought. (Source: Bloomberg)

The money was wired to the company as of Friday 6 November, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg. Reuters separately confirmed the figures from its own source. The $11 billion is only the first portion of a round that has not yet closed; Bloomberg reported it could total about $20 billion and finish in the coming weeks. (Source: Bloomberg; Source: Reuters)

The round began with bigger ambitions. OpenAI initially set out to raise $30 billion or more at a $1.4 trillion valuation, Bloomberg reported, before scaling back amid a public market rout for AI stocks. Two investors told Reuters the company had at one point sought a valuation as high as $1.5 trillion. Chief financial officer Sarah Friar confirmed the $1.25 trillion figure in a television interview but pushed back on reports of a higher starting price. (Source: Bloomberg; Source: Reuters)

Investors in the first close include Coatue Management and T. Rowe Price, according to Bloomberg. Others participating in the round include SoftBank, Abu Dhabi's MGX, Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz. OpenAI declined to comment on the fundraising. (Source: Bloomberg)

The valuation is about 47 per cent above the $852 billion set in March, when OpenAI closed a record $122 billion round anchored by Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank, with Microsoft also taking part. The step-up shows investors still prize the leading AI labs, but the scaled-back target shows the limits of that enthusiasm after a month of cooling sentiment towards big-ticket AI bets. (Source: Bloomberg)

The funding landed days after a sharp sell-off. Reuters reported that a sell-off on Thursday 5 November wiped $2.5 trillion in market value from the Nasdaq, the market's largest one-day drop since April 2025. Rival Anthropic's planned initial public offering is also being repriced lower, with some investors valuing it at about $1.5 trillion, below earlier expectations of roughly $2 trillion. (Source: Reuters)

What happens next will be measured in two ways. The remainder of the round, up to a further $9 billion, is expected to close in the coming weeks, and OpenAI is also expected to brief investors on its third-quarter results next week, according to The Information. The final size of the round, and whether the second tranche arrives at the same valuation, will be read as a test of how much appetite remains for the largest AI bets — and of whether the cooling market changes the timetable for OpenAI's long-discussed public listing, which the company delayed earlier this year. (Source: Bloomberg; Source: The Information)

This article was researched and drafted with AI assistance and verified against multiple independent sources.