OpenAI is racing to secure
investor commitments before rival Anthropic’s expected public
market debut in mid-November, in an unusually
fast fundraising that could value the ChatGPT maker at over $1.4
trillion, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The rapid timetable reflects, in part, a desire to get ahead
of Anthropic as the two frontier labs are increasingly tapping
in to a similar investor base, the people said, adding that
OpenAI wants to capitalize on its recent revenue growth
after launching new models. SoftBank Group, Abu
Dhabi-based MGX and other existing backers of OpenAI are in
talks to join the round of about $30 billion, one of the people
said.
The acceleration underscores how closely the two AI
developers are competing for capital as both pursue
trillion-dollar price tags, amid growing concern about rising
interest rates, significant volatility in technology stocks and
rising scrutiny of AI valuations.
OpenAI held meetings with long-only funds and sovereign
wealth funds last week while Anthropic was hosting its
own investor day. OpenAI’s funding round is expected to move
faster than is typical for an offering of its size, the
people said.
Investors familiar with the company say OpenAI also needs
capital to fund its substantial infrastructure commitments and
bolster its balance sheet if a deterioration in the IPO markets
further delays its planned 2027 listing.
Though there is high demand for the shares of both
companies, investors face the challenge of evaluating and
allocating capital to two complex, competing offerings within
days or weeks of each other. Some investors view OpenAI’s
financing push as an effort to lock in capital from funds that
might otherwise devote more of their resources to Anthropic’s
IPO, the people said.
OpenAI and SoftBank declined to comment. Anthropic and MGX
did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
TRYING TO HEAD OFF COMPARISONS
OpenAI is pitching investors on growth that accelerated
after the launch of its GPT-6 Astra model, saying it had reached
$50 billion in annualized revenue and expecting that figure to
rise to $70 billion by year-end, according to one of the people.
OpenAI has also cut prices on its cheaper models, which it
said has boosted usage, and told investors it can further lower
the price of AI models, the person added.
Anthropic’s annualized revenue reached roughly $65 billion
by July, Reuters previously reported. Its quarterly
revenue jumped to $16.8 billion in the third quarter from $11.6
billion in the second quarter this year, it told investors, but
slowing month-to-month revenue growth has raised concerns among
investors about its valuation.
OpenAI is seeking to complete the fundraising before
Anthropic’s financial disclosures give investors a fuller
picture of its business and invite comparisons between the two
companies, one person said.
The disclosures could prompt investors to press OpenAI Chief
Financial Officer Sarah Friar for more details about the
company’s revenue growth and financial outlook, the person
added. OpenAI records revenue on a net basis by subtracting
partner shares upfront. It has accused Anthropic of inflating
its revenue by counting the full, gross value of contracts sold
through third-party cloud providers. Anthropic told Reuters
earlier that it follows established accounting practices.
“OpenAI could want to set its own valuation and not have to
worry about a comp (comparison),” said Edward Best, co-chair of
capital markets at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, who is not working
on the deal and commented on a hypothetical basis. “It’s really
a two-horse race in terms of being public.”
OpenAI was last valued at $852 billion in March this year,
after a record-breaking $122 billion funding round, including a
commitment from Amazon.com, which agreed to invest up
to $50 billion in the lab.
The Financial Times previously reported some details of
OpenAI’s potential fundraising.
IPO PLANS HIT BY MARKET JITTERS
A number of companies preparing to go public have decided to
wait until after Anthropic’s planned IPO, wary of competing for
investor demand amid market volatility and a pullback in AI
stocks, bankers and investors said. Some late-stage companies
are also timing private fundraising rounds to avoid coinciding
with Anthropic’s expected debut, the bankers and investors said.
Some existing and prospective Anthropic investors have
argued for a valuation closer to $1.5 trillion for its market
debut — instead of the desired $2 trillion — after the AI
startup’s third-quarter results fell short of expectations,
Reuters reported last week.
The reassessment comes amid a choppy market since September,
with volatility in oil prices, rising bond yields and growing
concerns about AI safety weighing on investor appetite for
technology stocks. Investors are also scrutinizing the cost of
AI infrastructure, including the debt needed to finance the data
centers powering the boom.
At the center of the latest concerns is cloud provider
CoreWeave, whose shares and debt tumbled last week as
investors scrutinized the nearly $50 billion in borrowings used
to fund its rapid expansion.
The uncertainty has disrupted what had been expected to be a
busy autumn for IPOs, with companies reassessing their listing
plans amid market volatility and concerns about
valuations. Blackstone-backed AirTrunk REIT, Nvidia
-backed Firmus and SoftBank-backed SB Energy have
either pulled or paused their listings.
Nuclear services company Holtec cited a “perfect storm,”
driven mainly by uncertainty around data-center demand, when it
pulled its US listing last month.
Companies in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, widely
viewed as a proxy for AI-related semiconductor demand, have shed
$1.6 trillion in less than two weeks, while AI infrastructure
companies have come under particular pressure.