OpenAI seeks $30bn at $1.4tn as IPO slips to 2027

OpenAI is back at the fundraising table just six months after its last mega-round, seeking at least $30 billion at a valuation of about $1.4 trillion, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The talks are early and investor-led, and terms could still shift. But the number alone marks a step-change from the $852 billion valuation OpenAI secured in March, when it raised $122 billion in what was then billed as its final private round before a public listing.

That listing has now slipped. OpenAI has pushed its IPO out of 2026, citing AI safety concerns, and investors expect a debut in 2027 instead. Both OpenAI and Anthropic have filed confidentially for public offerings; Anthropic could list as soon as this autumn, putting a rival AI lab ahead of OpenAI to market. Bloomberg had earlier floated a smaller possible round, around $1.2 trillion, before the figure moved up to $1.4 trillion, according to TechCrunch.

The case for the raise sits in the revenue numbers. OpenAI's annualised run rate has jumped more than 70% since the start of the third quarter to near $70 billion, up from about $40 billion in August, according to Investing.com. B2B revenue has more than doubled since July, and consumer revenue added in the third quarter alone already exceeds all of OpenAI's consumer revenue for 2025. Subscriptions, enterprise deals, the Codex coding tool and a nascent advertising business are all driving the increase.

Losses are widening in step. OpenAI's operating loss grew to $12.3 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up from $9.3 billion in the first. The company does not disclose its spending.

CFO Sarah Friar told CNBC at OpenAI's DevDay the same day that the third quarter had been "incredible," confirming 70% quarter-over-quarter growth. She noted that when OpenAI launched its $200-a-month plan, many doubted anyone would pay it, and said consumers are now shifting toward consumption-based pricing rather than seat-based subscriptions alone. DevDay itself brought new products to market: Dots agents, the GPT-6.1 Sol model, and a $500-a-month Pro 500 tier.

A $1.4 trillion valuation, up from $852 billion in March, would make this one of the fastest re-ratings of a private company on record, and it comes with the IPO pushed back rather than forward. That sequencing tells its own story: OpenAI can raise private capital on demand, so there is no urgency to face public markets and their scrutiny of the widening operating loss.

The revenue run rate is the number that justifies the price tag, and Friar's comments point to where OpenAI thinks the growth comes from next: not more subscribers at $200, but consumption pricing and higher tiers like the new $500-a-month Pro 500 plan. Anthropic's possible autumn listing means OpenAI may watch a rival test public investors' appetite for AI-lab economics before it does so itself.