THE ESSENTIALS IN 30 SECONDS

  • OpenAI has closed $11 billion as the initial part of a round valuing it at $1.25 trillion, Bloomberg reported on November 6, citing people familiar with the matter; Reuters confirmed the figures with its own source.
  • Investors told Reuters that SoftBank and Abu Dhabi's MGX participated; OpenAI had not commented in the reports.
  • OpenAI first sought $30 billion or more at a $1.4 trillion valuation, per Bloomberg; the round could now grow to about $20 billion in the coming weeks.

OpenAI has completed an $11 billion first portion of its latest funding round at a $1.25 trillion valuation, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, November 6, citing people familiar with the matter. Reuters said a source had confirmed the deal the same day, and two investors told the agency that SoftBank and Abu Dhabi's MGX were among the participants. OpenAI had not commented publicly in either report, and the full list of investors has not been disclosed.

Smaller than first planned

The money arrives at a lower valuation and in a smaller amount than OpenAI originally had in mind. According to Bloomberg's account, as summarised by Investing.com, the company initially sought $30 billion or more at a $1.4 trillion valuation before trimming both targets as AI stocks sold off. Reuters gives a slightly different starting point, with two investors saying the valuation had come down from the roughly $1.5 trillion level OpenAI first aimed for, and describes the $11 billion as part of an original target of up to $30 billion.

Bloomberg reports that the round could reach a total of about $20 billion in the coming weeks. That matches the reduced target the Financial Times reported at the end of October, which ai-daily-news covered on November 1. How the remaining money would be raised, and from whom, has not been confirmed.

A cooler market for AI deals

The close follows more than a month of negotiations, which began after OpenAI put its plans for a stock market listing on hold, according to Investing.com's summary of the Bloomberg report. During that period, investor sentiment shifted, with concerns about the scale of AI infrastructure spending and about possible obstacles to data center construction after the US midterm elections.

For comparison, OpenAI raised $122 billion in March at an $852 billion valuation. The new price therefore still marks a sharp increase over seven months, but it falls short of the company's original asking price.

Reuters also notes that rival Anthropic faces a similar recalibration: some investors now value its planned IPO at about $1.5 trillion, below earlier expectations of around $2 trillion. Taken together, the two cases suggest that investors are still willing to fund the largest AI developers at very high valuations, but are pushing back on the most ambitious price tags.