OpenAI raises $11B at $1.25 trillion valuation in initial close

By Sophie Lindqvist

How much did OpenAI actually close?

Reuters reported on November 6, 2026, that OpenAI had closed an initial $11 billion in new funding at a $1.25 trillion valuation, citing a source familiar with the matter. Reuters said the $11 billion represented only part of the round’s original target of up to $30 billion.

Two investors told Reuters the valuation had come down from the $1.5 trillion level OpenAI initially sought. Those investors said SoftBank and MGX participated in the financing. Reuters described the transaction as an initial close within a larger plan, with the original fundraising target unfinished.

The distinction between valuation and money raised matters here. A $1.25 trillion valuation prices the company; $11 billion is what the first close secured. Neither figure completes the wider plan, which still has an original target of up to $30 billion.

OpenAI reached a $1.25 trillion valuation, but most of its stated fundraising target remains ahead.

How had investor mood changed?

Reuters said the financing landed after a month of cooling sentiment toward AI companies. Some investors valued Anthropic’s planned initial public offering at about $1.5 trillion, below earlier expectations of roughly $2 trillion.

Reuters’ report puts OpenAI’s reduced valuation ambition beside those lower expectations for Anthropic. Together, the figures show investors setting less aggressive price targets for the sector’s most highly valued companies.

In its March 31 funding announcement, OpenAI described "durable access to compute" as a strategic advantage. The company said that advantage advances research, improves products, expands access and structurally lowers delivery costs at scale.

The market is still funding AI infrastructure, but at lower valuations than leading companies sought.

Who had already backed OpenAI’s capital?

In its March 31, 2026 funding announcement, OpenAI said it had closed a previous round with $122 billion in committed capital at an $852 billion post-money valuation. Amazon, NVIDIA and SoftBank anchored that financing, while Microsoft continued its participation.

Within that March financing, SoftBank co-led alongside a16z, D. E. Shaw Ventures, MGX, TPG and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates. Reuters noted that SoftBank and MGX were already part of OpenAI’s investor base, so their reported participation in the new financing extended existing relationships.

OpenAI also disclosed new routes for raising money. The company said the March round raised more than $3 billion from individual investors through bank channels, the first time it had extended participation through that route.

The company expanded its revolving credit facility to approximately $4.7 billion during the same announcement. OpenAI said the facility remained undrawn when the round closed, leaving the full amount available rather than deployed.

OpenAI entered the latest raise with major institutional backers, bank-sourced individual capital and an undrawn $4.7 billion credit line.

How large was the business OpenAI was funding?

At the time of its March announcement, OpenAI said it was generating $2 billion in revenue per month. Enterprise customers accounted for more than 40% of revenue, and the company projected that enterprise revenue would reach parity with consumer revenue by the end of 2026.

OpenAI also reported more than 900 million weekly active ChatGPT users in March. It counted over 50 million subscribers. Those figures gave investors a large operating base against which to assess the company’s new $1.25 trillion valuation.

The revenue forecast put a specific test on OpenAI’s enterprise push. By the end of 2026, enterprise revenue would no longer trail consumer revenue, changing the mix that OpenAI had reported in March.

OpenAI was funding a business with $2 billion in monthly revenue, a growing enterprise base and more than 900 million weekly users.

Why did OpenAI need so many kinds of compute?

OpenAI’s stated rationale was that "no single architecture can efficiently meet the needs of the entire AI frontier." The company therefore treated infrastructure breadth as central to its deployment strategy rather than relying on one hardware supplier or one cloud arrangement.

To support that strategy, OpenAI listed a wide network of suppliers and infrastructure partners:

• Cloud infrastructure: Microsoft, Oracle, AWS, CoreWeave and Google Cloud.
• Chips: NVIDIA, AMD, AWS Trainium, Cerebras and an OpenAI chip developed with Broadcom.
• Data centers: OpenAI works with Oracle, SBE and SoftBank on data-center projects.

The breadth gives OpenAI several routes to secure capacity. OpenAI also says durable compute supports research, product improvement, wider access and lower delivery costs as usage grows.

That strategy helps explain the scale of capital OpenAI has assembled. It also connects the fundraising directly to the company’s claim that reliable infrastructure can lower the cost of delivering its products at scale.

OpenAI wants funding for a multi-supplier compute network, not one chip or cloud platform.

What did the partial close leave unresolved?

Reuters’ account left the rest of the $30 billion round open. OpenAI had secured $11 billion at a $1.25 trillion valuation, but it had not reached its initial $1.5 trillion valuation ambition and had not finished the larger fundraising plan.

OpenAI’s March disclosures showed substantial operating scale and a broad set of financing channels. The tension was straightforward: its compute strategy demanded substantial capital while the market was setting lower price targets for leading AI companies.

Reuters did not report a timetable for completing the round or say whether the remaining capital would close at the reduced valuation. Those details left both the financing scale and the durability of OpenAI’s $1.25 trillion price unresolved.

The next test is whether OpenAI can complete the round at $1.25 trillion while funding the broad compute network behind its products.