OpenAI races to lock in $30B at $1.4Tvaluation ahead of Anthropic IPO

OpenAI is moving quickly to secure about $30 billion in new funding commitments from investors before Anthropic's expected IPO in mid-November, Reuters reports. Existing investors, including SoftBank Group SFTBY and Abu Dhabi's MGX, are discussing joining the funding round. The deal would value OpenAI at about $1.4 trillion. That is up from its $852 billion valuation in March, when it completed a record $122 billion funding round that included a commitment of up to $50 billion from Amazon AMZN.

One reason for the tight schedule is to raise money before Anthropic does. Both AI companies are seeking funding from largely the same group of investors.

OpenAI also wants to make the most of its recent revenue growth following the launch of its latest models. It is telling investors that growth sped up after GPT-6 Astra was released. The company says its annual revenue rate has reached $50 billion and is expected to reach $70 billion by the end of the year. OpenAI has also lowered prices for its cheaper models, which it says has led to increased use. The company has told investors that it could cut prices further.

Meanwhile, Anthropic plans to go public in mid-November. However, after its third-quarter results came in below expectations, some investors are pushing for a valuation closer to $1.5 trillion instead of the $2 trillion the company wanted. Reuters previously reported that Anthropic's annual revenue rate reached about $65 billion by July. Its revenue for the third quarter rose to $16.8 billion, up from $11.6 billion in the second quarter.