OpenAI in talks for a $30 billion round at a $1.4 trillion valuation ahead of its IPO

OpenAI is in talks with investors to raise at least $30 billion in a new funding round that would value the company at around $1.4 trillion, according to a Bloomberg report. The deal is framed as a bridge round ahead of the IPO the company has planned for next year, at a moment when investors are showing considerable appetite to keep injecting capital into the maker of ChatGPT.

The figure under discussion would mark a considerable jump from the company's last known round, closed in March at $122 billion on a valuation of $852 billion. At the time, that round was presented as the final private transaction before the IPO, which had been expected as soon as this year, 2026.

The article frames this new move within a context of competitive recovery against Anthropic, which it notes briefly overtook OpenAI earlier this year. The company's strategic refocus on key areas such as coding is said to have driven 70% growth in its run-rate revenue since July, reaching $40 billion in August.

The other central element of the story is the delay of the IPO. CEO Sam Altman has already ruled out a public markets debut during 2026 in order to prioritize, in his own words, artificial intelligence safety. In remarks reported by Fortune and cited in the article, Altman said he finds it "unacceptable to take something like a 10% chance of ending the world before the decade is out," responding to warnings from safety researchers about the existential risks of AI.

This combination of factors — a multibillion-dollar round at a record valuation, accelerating revenue growth and an IPO postponement justified in safety terms — portrays an OpenAI that still needs enormous amounts of private capital while putting off its stock market arrival. Bloomberg itself frames the deal as a bridge toward that IPO, suggesting the company is seeking to maintain access to funding without rushing into a public listing prematurely.

It is worth noting that this is information at the negotiation stage: the article itself states that OpenAI did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment, so neither the final amount nor the exact $1.4 trillion valuation should yet be taken as officially confirmed.