OpenAI Valuation Hits $1.25 Trillion After $11bn Raise

OpenAI valuation has reached US$1.25 trillion after the ChatGPT maker raised about US$11 billion in the first part of a new funding round, Bloomberg reported on Friday, putting it among the most valuable companies in the world even as investor enthusiasm for AI cools.

The round has not closed yet. People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg it should wrap up in the coming weeks and could reach around US$20 billion in total, according to reports by TechCrunch and The Verge. OpenAI had not commented publicly at the time of writing.

How the OpenAI valuation compares

The new figure is a big jump from earlier this year. In March, OpenAI raised US$122 billion at a valuation of US$852 billion. Even so, the latest round falls short of what the company was reported to want only weeks ago.

• Late September: Bloomberg reported OpenAI was aiming to raise US$30 billion
• Earlier hopes pointed to a valuation of about US$1.4 trillion
• Current status: US$11 billion raised so far at US$1.25 trillion
• Expected final size: around US$20 billion, according to one source

In other words, the company is still raising a vast amount of money, but on less ambitious terms than it was chasing before the latest market slide.

Why investors are more cautious

The mood around AI has shifted quickly. Technology stocks fell sharply this week, and the US midterm elections, which delivered a heavy defeat for the Republican Party, showed strong public unease about AI companies and the data centres that power them. Many investors now expect tougher rules in the years ahead.

That pressure has reached Thailand too. On Friday, the Stock Exchange of Thailand index fell 2.16% to 1,365.70 as electronics makers linked to the global chip supply chain, including HANA, KCE and DELTA, were sold off, according to MGR Online. Our earlier report on tech stocks plunging after the midterms explains the wider sell-off.

OpenAI has also faced scrutiny over how it builds its infrastructure. Readers can see how it has handled one of those debates in our story on its data center NDA policy for public officials.

The Anthropic IPO factor

The funding news landed only hours after another Bloomberg report about OpenAI's main rival. Potential buyers of shares in Anthropic's planned stock market listing are said to be looking at a valuation as low as US$1.1 trillion, well below the roughly US$2 trillion investors were reportedly expecting about a month ago. Anthropic filed its S-1 registration document last week.

OpenAI itself has delayed its own listing. Chief executive Sam Altman said earlier this year that the company would wait until it could make more confident claims about the safety of its models, while also saying it would be bad for the world if OpenAI waited too long. Market watchers now expect a listing at some point next year.

What it means for users and businesses

For ordinary ChatGPT users, a funding round does not change much overnight. The money mainly pays for computing power, chips and data centres, which decide how fast new models and features arrive. Recent product changes, such as the plan for ChatGPT chat and work tabs to merge, show how quickly the company keeps adjusting its apps.

For businesses in Thailand and across Southeast Asia, the bigger question is cost. If investors demand faster returns, AI companies may push harder on paid plans, enterprise deals and pricing. At the same time, heavy global spending on AI hardware keeps supporting Thai electronics exporters, even in a nervous week.

The OpenAI valuation shows that money is still flowing to the biggest AI labs. The smaller-than-planned round shows that investors are starting to ask harder questions about price.

Photo: the Pioneer Building in San Francisco, home to OpenAI offices, as the OpenAI valuation climbs (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0).