OpenAI has slashed the target for its latest funding round by $10 billion, and is now seeking to raise $20 billion at a $1.25 trillion valuation, the Financial Times reported Friday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
OpenAI (Credits: CoinDesk)
OpenAI Funding Round Target Cut From $30 Billion
The ChatGPT maker was earlier planning to raise $30 billion at a $1.4 trillion valuation, and was racing to secure investor commitments before rival Anthropic’s expected public market debut in mid-November, Reuters reported earlier this month.
According to the FT, OpenAI set a Friday deadline for investors to commit — but the “first close” is expected to raise less than $20 billion after some investors reduced their allocations. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
AI Stock Rout and the Anthropic Race
The reported cut lands in the middle of a rough stretch for AI spending sentiment. The Nasdaq dropped 2.9% on Friday and is down 7.8% from its all-time closing high on October 6, amid growing worries about massive AI capital spending.
It’s also a competitive race: Anthropic is aiming to raise as much as $100 billion at a $1.5 trillion valuation in its November IPO, and both frontier labs are tapping a similar investor base, Reuters has reported. A $20 billion round at $1.25 trillion would still rank among the largest private financings ever attempted.
Also Read: Anthropic Files for Blockbuster IPO, Aiming to Price in Mid-November | Nvidia Weighs Cosigning Billions for Nscale’s West Virginia AI Data Center
Source: CoinDesk — read the full story there.
