Fall sales at Sam Altman. OpenAI wants to complete a funding round of up to $30 billion by the end of next week based on a valuation of $1.25 trillion. The parent company of ChatGPT was still demanding 1,400 billion three weeks ago for the same operation.
The discount reaches $150 billion, or about 11%. It comes the week when Wall Street sanctions infrastructure spending on artificial intelligence and when Anthropic could make public its IPO prospectus.
Key Points
Coatue and Emirati funds are leading a fundraising capped at $30 billion.
The price of existing shares fell by around 11% compared to September demand.
The listing of OpenAI will wait until 2027, that of Anthropic could become clearer this Friday.
Meta declined on Thursday after raising its investment budget.
OpenAI concedes 150 billion on its valuation
The round is led by the American fund Coatue and by investors from the United Arab Emirates, according to sources close to the discussions cited by CNBC. OpenAI told them on Thursday that they were aiming for signatures by the end of next week. The final amount is not set in stone.
The 1,250 billion are understood before the arrival of new money (so-called pre-money valuation). Once the 30 billion is paid, OpenAI would be worth at most 1,280 billion dollars.
The starting price was more ambitious. Bloomberg reported on September 29 that OpenAI was asking for at least $30 billion on a valuation of around $1.4 trillion before investment. The agency added on October 6 that this price was presented as fixed and not negotiated, and that the Abu Dhabi fund MGX and other Emirati funds were considering providing up to 10 billion cumulatively. This firm tariff has fallen by 150 billion in a little over three weeks.
Everything is relative. OpenAI was worth $852 billion after investment following its previous fundraising, completed in March. Even planed, the existing shares are therefore worth 47% more than seven months ago.
Some of the Emirati money could be backed by a trade deal that would give OpenAI more computing capacity in the country. The needs are colossal: the company has announced to its investors some $600 billion in computing spending by 2030.
Meta and Nasdaq present the addition of AI
The lifting is negotiated in a notch market. Meta raised the bottom of its 2026 investment range from $130 billion to $135 billion on Wednesday evening, with the ceiling unchanged at $145 billion. Its free cash flow (the money left after investments are paid) fell to -$2.12 billion in the third quarter from +10.63 billion a year earlier. The group is also preparing a new category of shares without voting rights to finance the future.
The stock fell nearly 7% on Thursday.
“More expenses, negative cash flow, not enough income generated by these expenses,” summarizes Robert Pavlik (Dakota Wealth) to Reuters. The contagion was immediate. The Nasdaq fell 2.6% on Thursday and CoreWeave fell around 10%. Nvidia subsequently lost more than 4%.
Difficult, in this context, to defend 1,400 billion. Meta is profitable and is sanctioned for 145 billion annual expenses, while OpenAI promises 600 billion by 2030 without being listed.
OpenAI watches Anthropic head to the stock market
The operation is bridge financing before an IPO that OpenAI does not plan before 2027. The company has already filed a confidential file with the SEC. Its financial director Sarah Friar mentioned a listing in 2027 in front of employees in August, and Sam Altman ruled out any immediate IPO in September.
Anthropic does not have these moods. Yahoo Finance reports that the creator of Claude could publish its prospectus (the S-1 form) as early as this Friday, October 23. Anthropic raised $65 billion in May at a valuation of $965 billion. The company is now targeting between 1,500 and 2,000 billion for its listing according to Reuters. The Wall Street Journal mentions up to 100 billion dollars raised. The first session is hoped for before Thanksgiving (November 26).
At this price, the youngest would beat OpenAI by at least 200 billion.
SpaceX opened the ball rolling on June 12 with $75 billion raised at $135 per share, for a valuation of $1.77 trillion. The title fell on Thursday with the rest of tech.
