OpenAI is moving quickly to raise roughly $30 billion in fresh capital, and the timing is no accident. According to a Reuters report published on 20 October, the company wants the money committed before Anthropic opens its books to public investors.
The round would value OpenAI at more than $1.4 trillion. That is a steep climb from its last private mark of $852 billion, set in March after a $122 billion raise. Two existing backers, SoftBank and Abu Dhabi's MGX, are said to be in talks to join. OpenAI declined to comment, and none of the terms are confirmed.
What makes the effort unusual is the speed. People familiar with the talks told Reuters the raise is moving faster than is normal for a deal of this size. The reason is competitive. Anthropic is expected to go public in mid-November, and its prospectus will give investors a detailed look at its finances for the first time. OpenAI would rather set its own valuation now than have it measured against a rival's freshly disclosed numbers.
"It's really a two-horse race in terms of being public," Edward Best, co-chair of capital markets at the law firm Willkie Farr and Gallagher, told Reuters, speaking about the broader dynamic rather than the deal itself. He added that OpenAI "could want to set its own valuation and not have to worry about a comp," meaning a direct comparison with Anthropic.
Both companies are chasing capital from the same pool of large investors, so money that flows into OpenAI now is money that cannot go into Anthropic's offering later. OpenAI also needs cash for the enormous infrastructure commitments it has signed, and a weak market could push its own planned listing past 2027.
The revenue dispute behind the numbers
The fundraising comes wrapped in a running argument over who is actually bigger. OpenAI has told investors its annualised revenue sits near $50 billion and could reach $70 billion by the end of the year, though the higher figure is a forecast rather than money already earned. We have looked before at how that $50 billion holds up under scrutiny.
Anthropic, for its part, reported third-quarter revenue of $16.8 billion, up from $11.6 billion in the prior quarter, with annualised revenue around $65 billion by July. OpenAI has accused Anthropic of flattering its totals by counting the gross value of contracts, a characterisation Anthropic rejects.
For all the size of the figures, the mood on Wall Street has turned cautious. Investors have grown nervous about the mountain of debt funding the industry's data-centre buildout. That is the backdrop to OpenAI's hurry. Getting the paperwork signed before the comparisons start is, in this market, worth moving fast for.
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