OpenAI Seeks $30B Bridge as Altman Puts Safety Ahead of an IPO
OpenAI Seeks $30B Bridge as Altman Puts Safety Ahead of an IPO
OpenAI is reportedly seeking at least $30 billion in a pre-IPO funding round that would value the ChatGPT maker at roughly $1.4 trillion—a fresh private-market wager on a company that has pushed its public debut further away.
The proposed raise would follow a $122 billion financing in March, when OpenAI was valued at $852 billion. That earlier round had been expected to be the company’s last major private financing before an IPO, which had until recently been anticipated this year.
The business case for investors has strengthened in the meantime. After Anthropic briefly moved ahead of OpenAI early in the year, OpenAI refocused on areas including coding. Bloomberg reported that the shift helped drive a 70% increase in run-rate revenue since July, to $40 billion in August.
But the timetable has changed. Investors are described as eager to fund OpenAI ahead of an expected market debut next year, while Altman has ruled out a public offering in 2026. The reported $30 billion transaction would instead serve as a bridge round to an eventual IPO.
Altman has framed the delay less as a financial retreat than a safety decision. Responding to warnings from AI safety researchers about existential risks, he said: “I think it is unacceptable to be taking like a 10% chance of killing everybody by the end of the decade.”
That leaves OpenAI trying to satisfy two imperatives at once: sustain the immense capital demands of its next phase, and persuade investors that waiting longer for a public exit is the price of moving more cautiously. OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.
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