ChatGPT maker OpenAI scaled back its funding target to twenty billion dollars at a one-and-a-quarter-trillion-dollar valuation ahead of an October 30 deadline, trimming ambitions as volatile tech markets and rival Anthropic’s looming initial public offering test investor appetite for artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The artificial intelligence developer adjusted its financial targets after facing pushback from backers during a tight fundraising window according to a report by the Financial Times. Last month, the startup sought to raise thirty billion dollars at a $1.4 trillion valuation, but investors approached a Friday deadline with trimmed allocations as market conditions shifted.
Cash Flow Deficits Pressure AI Ventures
Broader financial turbulence compounded the hesitation among private backers. Alphabet reported a third-quarter free cash flow deficit of nine billion and capital expenditures surging 114 percent.
Industry observers noted that backers are demanding clearer evidence of returns before committing capital to private AI ventures.
OpenAI Adjusts Round Size Ahead of Anthropic IPO
OpenAI originally rushed to secure commitments to get ahead of rival Anthropic’s expected public market debut in mid-November. By trimming the round’s size, leadership created a structure that could be announced as oversubscribed against the revised goal rather than reading as a missed milestone.
The market needs to see a successful IPO. These companies need funding.
Jimmy Chang, chief investment officer at Rockefeller Global Family Office
Institutional investors weighed exposure to both competing laboratories as they tapped into a similar pool of capital.
OpenAI Projects Seventy Billion Dollars in Revenue
The financing round participants expected to back the bridge round include SoftBank, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, and Founders Fund. A retail participation window is also planned for high-net-worth investors to buy into the company.
To support its valuation, OpenAI pointed investors toward accelerating business metrics following the launch of its GPT-6 Astra model, reporting an annualized revenue run rate approaching fifty billion dollars at the end of September and projecting seventy billion by the end of the year.
In March 2025, OpenAI secured $40 billion at a $300 billion post-money valuation led by SoftBank with staggered disbursements, followed by a record $122 billion round in March 2026 at an $852 billion post-money valuation that included a commitment from Amazon.com to invest up to $50 billion in the lab. Throughout 2026, Anthropic experienced explosive revenue gains, jumping from $4.8 billion in Q1 to $11.6 billion in the second quarter and ultimately reaching $16.8 billion in the third.
Regarding corporate governance, disclosures show the OpenAI Foundation controls roughly 26 percent of OpenAI Group’s equity, Microsoft holds about 27 percent, and the remainder is divided among employees and external investors. Meanwhile, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, who leads the company founded in 2015, stated that it would be ill-advised for the company to go public in 2026, while Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar told employees in August that OpenAI will be a public company in 2027.
Amid those shifts, Charles Gasparino of The Post reported on Thursday that Wall Street financiers have urged both Anthropic and OpenAI to accelerate their IPO timelines out of fear that a Democratic victory in the midterms might bring heavy regulatory scrutiny to the sector. At the same time, four prominent hyperscalers are preparing to invest more than $700 billion in capital expenditures to build out AI infrastructure.