OpenAI Secures Only $11 Billion of Its Targeted $30 Billion Round

OpenAI has so far obtained investor commitments of roughly $11 billion, less than half of the $30 billion it originally sought, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter. Fundraising continues, but the company now expects the round to reach a total of $20 billion.

The deal under discussion values OpenAI at $1.25 trillion, down from the $1.4 trillion the company had counted on earlier. The ChatGPT developer is preparing for a stock market listing that could come as early as the start of next year. Concerns about the future of the AI boom have cooled the interest of some large investors.

Market jitters

The cooling comes as technology shares suffered a broad sell-off after disappointing results from Google, Amazon and Intel. Investors have become more cautious about AI spending, choosing companies more selectively and scrutinizing deal terms more closely.

OpenAI has told shareholders it intends to keep raising money in the coming weeks. It plans to approach family offices that manage the wealth of affluent families, as well as wealthy private investors.

Pressure from Anthropic

At the same time, OpenAI is trying to speed up revenue growth, where it has been overtaken by Anthropic on the back of demand for Claude Code. Anthropic has already made public the documents for its own listing, which show rapid growth in recent quarters. Its revenue more than doubled from the first to the second quarter, to $11.6 billion, while OpenAI's rose about 18% to $6.7 billion.

The figures are not directly comparable. Anthropic books the full value of sales made through cloud partners and counts the partners' share as a cost, whereas OpenAI deducts that share from revenue. In the second quarter Anthropic posted a small operating profit, while OpenAI's operating losses widened.

OpenAI recently cut prices on its newest models, and third-party data cited in the report suggest this has helped it win back some ground against Anthropic.