A week after reports said OpenAI was close to a private raise of as much as $30 billion, the ambition has shrunk. The Financial Times reported on Friday, October 30, that the ChatGPT developer had lowered its goal for the round by about $10 billion, to roughly $20 billion. CNBC said on Saturday that it had independently confirmed the new figure of up to $20 billion, and the Wall Street Journal reported that investors had so far committed only around $11 billion.
The price tag has not moved again. According to the FT, as relayed by Reuters, OpenAI is still asking for a valuation of $1.25 trillion, the level it settled on in late October after pitching $1.4 trillion to some backers. Outlets describe that figure differently: CNBC's earlier reporting called it a pre-money number, while CNBC now attributes a post-money basis to the FT. The difference matters for how much of the company new investors would actually own, and it has not been cleared up publicly.
The reports also give a picture of how the round is being assembled. The FT said OpenAI had set Friday as the deadline for commitments and that the first close is expected to come in below $20 billion because some investors trimmed their allocations. A consortium from the United Arab Emirates that includes the state-backed fund MGX is expected to be the biggest participant, and OpenAI would gain an option to lease newly built computing capacity in the region. The FT expects Coatue, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund to join as well. To fill the gap, the FT said wealthy individuals will be able to buy in later through a retail offering at the same valuation, and the Journal said OpenAI plans to approach family offices in the coming weeks.
CNBC's source stressed that the round is still open and that the numbers could change. OpenAI did not answer requests for comment from Reuters, CNBC or TechCrunch, and MGX, Coatue, Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz did not respond to Reuters either. None of the figures has been confirmed by the company.
The timing explains much of the shortfall. Technology shares fell hard at the end of October as investors questioned whether the enormous sums going into data centers and GPUs will pay off. Reuters noted that the Nasdaq lost 2.9% on Friday and sits 7.8% below its October 6 record close. CNBC listed Intel down 25% after weak guidance, Micron down 5.5% and Nvidia down 4% on the same day, and pointed out that Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon had all reported capital spending figures or forecasts below analyst expectations the previous week.
Competition is the other pressure point. Reuters has reported that OpenAI wants this round done partly to get ahead of Anthropic's planned listing, because the two companies are courting much the same pool of investors. Figures cited by the Journal, as summarized by Investing.com, show Anthropic's quarterly revenue more than doubling to $11.6 billion, helped by demand for Claude Code, while OpenAI's grew about 18% to $6.7 billion and its operating losses widened. Anthropic has filed for a stock market debut expected next month; OpenAI is working toward its own listing in 2027.
Even $11 billion would be a very large private raise, and a $1.25 trillion valuation remains extraordinary for a company that is not yet public. The signal is in the direction of travel: OpenAI has lowered both the size and the price of this round within a few weeks. Whether the retail tranche and family-office money close the gap, and on what terms the first close lands, will be the next facts worth watching.