OpenAI raises less than half of the 30 billion targeted: the Nasdaq correction has cooled investors

End of playtime for the AI. OpenAI completed its latest funding round with less than half of the $30 billion it planned to raise. The valuation remains set at $1,250 billion, compared to $1,400 billion hoped for at the beginning of October. A week ago, Sam Altman's company was still targeting 30 billion at this price.

Key Points

OpenAI funding round brings in less than $15 billion.

The start-up has already given up 150 billion valuation in October.

The Nasdaq 100 has lost around 10% in three weeks.

Anthropic is preparing its IPO and is chasing the same capital.

OpenAI lifting: the check melted in a week

The Wall Street Journal released the information this Saturday at 6:49 a.m. Paris time. The title is enough. OpenAI “raises less than half of its target of 30 billion dollars”, for a valuation of 1,250 billion “less than its target of 1,400 billion”.

The Financial Times had opened the ball a few hours earlier, in an article taken up by CoinDesk. OpenAI is only aiming for around twenty billion. The two figures complement each other. The FT describes the new objective, the WSJ what is actually in the crate.

The fall is brutal. Bloomberg mentioned at the end of September at least 30 billion raised on a base of 1,400 billion. The price fell by 150 billion three weeks later, for a round led by the American fund Coatue and Emirati investors according to CNBC. It is now the amount raised that is collapsing. On paper, OpenAI is still worth 47% more than in March, when it was valued at 852 billion.

OpenAI pays for AI fix on Wall Street

The calendar doesn't help. The Nasdaq 100 has lost around 10% since its October 6 record, including 4.5% for Friday's session alone, according to CoinDesk. Intel had its worst day since 1974 (-29%). Reddit dropped as much after admitting that Google's AI was taking traffic away from it. Alphabet had already lost 10% on Thursday.

Investors are now looking at the bill. OpenAI has announced around $600 billion in computing spending by 2030, for revenues that remain far from that level. And competition for new money is getting tougher. Anthropic plans to go public in November and is reportedly seeking up to $100 billion at a valuation of $1.5 trillion, more than OpenAI.

Bitcoin has not played the safe haven. The first cryptocurrency lost around 8% in one month, weighed down by the same risk aversion then by the Binance hack.