OpenAI Trims Its $30 Billion Fundraising Ambition as AI Spending Nerves Rise
OpenAI Trims Its $30 Billion Fundraising Ambition as AI Spending Nerves Rise
OpenAI has reduced the target for its latest fundraising round from as much as $30 billion to up to $20 billion, according to CNBC, a retreat that lands as investors grow more uneasy about whether the AI industry’s vast infrastructure bill will pay off.
The round remains open, meaning both the final size and terms can still move. A person familiar with the deal told CNBC the figures were not settled. The Financial Times, cited by CNBC, reported that OpenAI set investors a Friday deadline for commitments and that some backers chose to trim their allocations.
Even with the lower target, OpenAI is reportedly pursuing a post-money valuation of about $1.25 trillion. Investors from the United Arab Emirates are leading the round alongside Coatue, CNBC said.
The timing is awkward for a company synonymous with the AI investment frenzy. In the days before the revised target emerged, markets had begun questioning whether the spending race — data centres, chips and other computing capacity — can generate returns commensurate with its scale. AI-linked shares fell sharply on Friday: Intel dropped 25%, Micron lost 5.5% and Nvidia declined 4%.
Big Tech has reinforced those concerns. Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon have all been spending aggressively to expand AI capacity, but their latest capital-expenditure figures or outlooks fell below analysts’ expectations. Alphabet then suffered its worst-ever trading day after search revenue disappointed; its chief business officer, Philipp Schindler, said weaker monetisation in the company’s AI Mode had been part of the drag.
For OpenAI, the reduced ask does not erase the extraordinary valuation ambition. It does, however, show that even the industry’s flagship company is meeting a market newly alert to the price of the AI race.
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