OpenAI raises $11bn at $1.25 trillion valuation, reports say
The reported first close is part of a round that could reach $20bn and would value the ChatGPT maker about 47% above its March level.
OpenAI has taken in about $11 billion in new funding at a valuation of $1.25 trillion, according to reports of the deal, the opening part of a round that could reach $20 billion.
Reuters put the amount at $11 billion and the valuation at $1.25 trillion, attributing both to a source it did not name. NDTV carried the same two figures.
The Rio Times reported that the money was wired on Friday 6 November and that the round could grow to as much as $20 billion. It said it found no written statement from OpenAI giving the amount raised, the identity of the investors, or whether the $1.25 trillion is measured before or after the new money.
If confirmed, the valuation would sit about 47% above the $852 billion OpenAI announced on 31 March 2026, when it said it had closed a $122 billion round at a post-money valuation, meaning the value counted after the new money. The Rio Times reported that Amazon, the cloud computing group, NVIDIA, the chipmaker, and SoftBank, the Japanese investment group, anchored that round, and that about $3 billion more came from individual investors through banks.
The same outlet reported that earlier accounts of this raise described a target of about $30 billion at a valuation near $1.4 trillion. The latest reports therefore describe a smaller round at a lower valuation than the company first sought.
OpenAI is privately held, so its shares do not trade on an exchange and ordinary investors cannot buy them directly. On Polymarket, a prediction market where traders bet money on outcomes, 97.6% of positions on 7 November priced in no OpenAI stock market listing by 31 December 2026, according to the Rio Times, which said $2.58 million had been traded across the market's outcomes. Those prices are bets, not polls.
The funding matters beyond the company's own investors. ChatGPT, OpenAI's chatbot, is used by readers and businesses well outside the United States, and the computing power behind it is one driver of spending across the chip and data-centre industries.
The final size of the round remains open. No report said when OpenAI might list its shares.
How the reports differ
Reuters attributed the $11 billion and the $1.25 trillion valuation to a source it did not name. NDTV carried the same two figures in its headline without attributing them there. The Rio Times led with the absence of any written OpenAI statement, said the money was wired on 6 November, and reported that earlier accounts of the raise had put the target at about $30 billion and the valuation near $1.4 trillion, so the latest figures describe a smaller round than first sought. The Rio Times also added Polymarket pricing on whether OpenAI lists shares by the end of 2026, which neither of the other two carried.
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