OpenAI Nears $30B UAE and Coatue Round at $1.25T Valuation
TL;DR
- The $1.25T pre-money target would make OpenAI the most valued private company in history, surpassing ByteDance.
- OpenAI's ask dropped $150B in under six weeks, from the $1.4T price shown to BlackRock and UAE fund MGX in early October.
- UAE investors are pairing equity with a separate commercial compute-capacity contract, making infrastructure access a condition of the anchor investment.
OpenAI is closing in on a funding round of up to $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation, led by investors from the United Arab Emirates and Coatue, CNBC reported on Thursday. The company told investors it is "aiming to secure signatures by the end of next week," though the final size of the round is still being determined.
The $1.25 trillion figure is the striking part. Earlier in October, OpenAI had already presented a fixed $1.4 trillion pre-money price to prospective backers, including BlackRock and UAE fund MGX. The ask has dropped by roughly $150 billion in a matter of weeks.
The financing is being positioned as an "opportunistic" bridge ahead of a potential 2027 IPO, TechCrunch wrote, with discussions kickstarted after investors approached the company in September. The $1.25 trillion mark is pre-money, so the post-money number lands higher once the capital is in.
Alongside the equity raise, OpenAI is negotiating a separate commercial deal that would secure more computing capacity from the UAE. The company has told investors it plans to spend $600 billion on compute by 2030, a figure that frames why a sovereign-backed capacity agreement is being wired into the same conversation as the cheque.
This is the latest beat in a run of OpenAI financing coverage; two days ago we tracked the earlier $1.4 trillion pitch that this round now reprices.
What others are reporting
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Bloomberg Read →
Bloomberg's independent sourcing confirms the $150B shift from $1.4T and that final terms could still change, adding wire-service corroboration to the CNBC scoop.
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TechCrunch Read →
Adds the record-breaking private-company frame and links OpenAI's valuation ceiling to Anthropic's $1.5-2T IPO target, raising competitive stakes for both listings.
Should OpenAI command a valuation of more than $1 trillion with this round, it would break records as the most valued private company ever.
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SiliconAngle Read →
Frames the bridge round as a direct consequence of Altman's August reversal on IPO timing, positioning OpenAI as trailing Anthropic in the race to public markets.
The round is being positioned as an 'opportunistic' bridge for OpenAI, to provide it with the capital it needs to continue investing while finalizing IPO plans.
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Tech Funding News Read →
Names Anthropic's pending IPO as the specific mechanism behind the valuation cut: investors are explicitly waiting for public-market pricing before committing to OpenAI.
The market needs to see a successful IPO. These companies need funding. (Jimmy Chang, Rockefeller Global Family Office)
Originally reported by cnbc.com
Read the original article →Original headline: OpenAI Nears $30B UAE and Coatue Round at $1.25T Valuation, Down From $1.4T Pitch