OpenAI weighs raise at $1.2 trillion before its IPO

OpenAI is considering another private funding round at a valuation of $1.2 trillion, ahead of the public listing it has been preparing since the spring, the Financial Times reported on Sept. 15.

That would be 41% above where it was priced in March and higher than the figure it has been holding out for at flotation.

The last round closed on March 31 at $852 billion post-money, raising $122 billion, which remains the largest private fundraise in history. Amazon put in $50 billion, Nvidia $30 billion and SoftBank $30 billion, alongside Andreessen Horowitz, D.E. Shaw, MGX, TPG, Sequoia, Thrive, BlackRock, Fidelity and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price. About $3 billion went to individual investors through three banks, the first time OpenAI had sold equity outside institutions.

The rise since has been relentless. OpenAI was worth $157 billion in October 2024, $300 billion in March 2025, $500 billion that October and $852 billion five months later.

It filed confidentially for a listing in the second quarter with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley leading, and Reuters has reported the offering could raise $60 billion or more, which would make it the second largest in history. Sam Altman has reportedly treated any valuation below $1 trillion as a non-starter.

Chief financial officer Sarah Friar told employees on Aug. 20 that the company is targeting a listing by 2027, with the option to move earlier if growth accelerates, and described the offering as a milestone and another fundraise rather than an endpoint.

Raising privately at $1.2 trillion first would settle the question the listing was meant to answer.

The numbers underneath are the reason the valuation is contested. OpenAI generates about $25 billion in annualised revenue, roughly $2 billion a month, with enterprise customers now more than 40% of it, and ChatGPT has above 900 million weekly users. It is also losing heavily. The Information reported that it lost about $1.22 for every dollar of revenue in the first quarter of 2026, against projected full-year losses near $14 billion.

At $1 trillion the company would trade at roughly 40 times revenue. At $1.2 trillion it is closer to 48 times, which is above any listed software company at scale, and Altman’s stated path to justifying it runs through reaching $100 billion of annualised revenue by 2027.

A competitor is closing. Anthropic was valued at $380 billion in a February round and its annualised revenue went from about $9 billion at the end of 2025 to roughly $30 billion by March, according to Reuters. Secondary market indications in late April put it near $1 trillion, above OpenAI’s own secondary mark at the time, and it has reached profitability.

One investor has more riding on the number than anyone. SoftBank is committing close to $65 billion to OpenAI by October and has borrowed heavily to do it, raising about $37 billion this year including an $11.87 billion facility signed last week from roughly 20 banks. Some of that borrowing is secured against its OpenAI shares, and the group carries a credit rating one notch below investment grade.

A markup to $1.2 trillion would improve that position considerably. A markdown would do the opposite.