OpenAI has held preliminary discussions with investors about raising tens of billions of dollars at a valuation around $750 billion, according to reports from The Information and Bloomberg. The ChatGPT maker could raise as much as $100 billion in the funding round, representing a staggering 50% increase from the company's $500 billion valuation achieved just three months ago in October.
The discussions remain at early stages and details could still change, with OpenAI declining to comment on the reports. If finalized, the valuation would position OpenAI among the most valuable private companies globally, trailing only ByteDance and potentially exceeding SpaceX's valuation depending on timing.
Unprecedented Private Market Growth
The rapid valuation acceleration from $500 billion in October to $750 billion just months later reflects extraordinary investor confidence in AI infrastructure despite mounting questions about profitability timelines. OpenAI achieved its October valuation through a secondary share sale allowing current and former employees to sell approximately $6.6 billion in shares.
At $750 billion, OpenAI would rank as the largest startup valuation in history, surpassing the typical trajectory where companies pursue initial public offerings at lower valuations. The company reportedly plans groundwork for an IPO potentially filing with securities regulators as early as second half 2026, with possible valuations reaching $1 trillion.
Massive Capital Requirements
The aggressive fundraising reflects OpenAI's enormous infrastructure commitments. The company has signed more than $1.4 trillion in AI infrastructure deals with Oracle, Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom. Last month, OpenAI contracted to purchase $38 billion in capacity from AWS, marking its first major agreement with the cloud infrastructure leader.
CEO Sam Altman recently stated the company plans $1.4 trillion in AI infrastructure spending, highlighting the capital intensity required for frontier AI development. These commitments dwarf typical technology company capital expenditures, resembling nation-state infrastructure investments more than conventional startup scaling.
OpenAI's annualized revenue approaches $20 billion by year-end, but losses continue mounting as operations scale. The company generates revenue primarily through ChatGPT Plus subscriptions at $20 monthly and enterprise API access, but must continually raise capital to fund compute-intensive model training and inference.
Strategic Investment Context
Separate from the $750 billion funding discussions, OpenAI reportedly negotiates a $10 billion investment from Amazon that would include adopting Amazon's Trainium AI chips. The deal under discussion could value OpenAI above $500 billion and potentially involve OpenAI assisting Amazon's marketplace similar to partnerships with Etsy, Shopify, and Instacart.
The Amazon negotiations follow OpenAI's October restructuring that clarified its Microsoft partnership details, providing greater freedom to raise capital and form partnerships across the AI ecosystem. Microsoft previously invested $13 billion in OpenAI through 2023.
Competitive Pressure
The funding talks occur as competition intensifies dramatically. Altman recently issued an internal "code red" memo after Google's Gemini 3 gained market share and Anthropic's Claude showed strong enterprise adoption. ChatGPT traffic reportedly dipped while Google's search integration of AI attracted users.
Google's Gemini 3 Flash launch this week directly challenges ChatGPT's positioning, offering comparable reasoning at lower latency and cost. Anthropic raised $4 billion from Amazon in November, reaching $18.4 billion valuation, while competitors continue well-funded development efforts.
Market Implications
The potential $100 billion raise would represent the largest venture capital round ever recorded, dwarfing typical mega-rounds. Investors participating would include SoftBank, Thrive Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, and Abu Dhabi-backed MGX according to sources.
For the broader AI industry, OpenAI's valuation trajectory validates massive infrastructure investments while highlighting sustainability questions. If OpenAI at $750 billion with $20 billion revenue requires continued capital raises, the path to profitability for AI companies remains unclear despite technological breakthroughs.
