OpenAI in Talks for $30 Billion Raise at $1.4 Trillion Valuation as IPO Slips to 2027

Since Sam Altman ruled out an OpenAI initial public offering for 2026 earlier this month, the company has moved to line up more private cash instead. Bloomberg reported Tuesday, September 29, that OpenAI is in early talks to raise at least $30 billion in a new funding round that would value the company at approximately $1.4 trillion, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg and relayed by TechCrunch, Cointelegraph, Benzinga and Invezz.

That would mark a roughly 64% jump from the $852 billion valuation OpenAI landed in March, when it raised $122 billion, per Benzinga. Bloomberg had previously floated a lower figure, around $1.2 trillion, for this same round, according to Invezz, meaning the number investors are being asked to pay has already moved up once during negotiations that are, by every outlet's account, still in an early and unsettled stage.

A Bridge, Not the Exit

OpenAI confidentially filed IPO paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June, Cointelegraph reported. But Altman told Fortune this month that going public in 2026 would be an "ill-advised moment," adding, "we don't feel pressure on that." Asked if 2027 was more realistic, he said, "I would say not 2026. We have a lot of work to do, including meeting the safety and alignment requirements of this moment."

The new $30 billion-plus round is designed as a bridge, giving OpenAI capital to keep operating and expanding while it waits out that timeline, according to Bloomberg's reporting as carried by TechCrunch and Benzinga.

The Anthropic Math Gets Confusing

Benzinga reported the proposed $1.4 trillion valuation would put OpenAI back above rival Anthropic's most recent private valuation of $965 billion. Cointelegraph, however, reported that Anthropic is moving ahead with its own IPO plans this fall at a valuation that could exceed $2 trillion. Those are two different numbers measuring two different things, a private secondary valuation versus a hoped-for public listing price, and no source in this set reconciles them. Readers comparing the two companies should treat any head-to-head ranking as unsettled until Anthropic actually prices a public offering.

Revenue Numbers That Don't Quite Match

TechCrunch, citing Bloomberg, reported OpenAI's run-rate revenue jumped 70% since July to reach $40 billion in August. Benzinga separately reported that OpenAI President Greg Brockman said the run rate jumped more than 20% in July alone, and that annualized revenue "topped $40 billion," roughly double where it stood at the end of 2025. Neither figure matches the near-$70 billion run-rate number that circulated in other coverage this same week. OpenAI has not published an audited or consistently defined revenue figure, and it still has not disclosed what it's actually spending, a gap that matters given the size of the capital it's now trying to raise.

The Safety Argument, and the Skeptical Read

Altman's stated reason for delaying the IPO is existential risk. He told Fortune, "I think it is unacceptable to be taking like a 10% chance of killing everybody by the end of the decade," responding to warnings from safety researchers. He also addressed the United Nations Security Council on AI risk earlier this month, per Cointelegraph.

A fair skeptic's concern here: a company delaying its own IPO while simultaneously asking private investors for $30 billion at a valuation 64% higher than six months ago is not obviously behaving like a company that believes the technology is too dangerous to scale. Raising more money to build more capacity is a growth move, not a pause. Critics could reasonably ask whether "safety" is the full explanation or whether avoiding public-market scrutiny, disclosure requirements, and quarterly earnings pressure plays a role too. None of the sourced reporting here confirms or refutes that. It's an open question, not an established fact, and OpenAI has not addressed it directly. OpenAI declined to comment to Bloomberg on the funding talks, per Invezz, and did not respond to TechCrunch's separate request for comment.

What's Unresolved

Terms of the round, which investors are participating, and whether the $1.4 trillion figure holds are all still in flux, according to every outlet covering the Bloomberg report. The company has not disclosed capital expenditures, compute costs, or a spending breakdown to match its revenue claims. And with two competing revenue figures now in circulation from OpenAI-adjacent reporting in the same week, the next real test is whether OpenAI itself puts out a single, verifiable number when the round actually closes.