{"id":2981,"date":"2026-10-20T09:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T04:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2981"},"modified":"2026-10-20T09:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T04:04:14","slug":"openai-seeks-to-accelerate-fundraising-ahead-of-anthropic-ipo-sources-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2981","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI seeks to accelerate fundraising ahead of Anthropic IPO, sources say"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

OpenAI is racing to secure investor commitments before rival Anthropic\u2019s expected public market debut in mid-November, in an unusually fast fundraising round that could value the ChatGPT maker at over $1.4 trillion, according to two \u200bpeople familiar with the matter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The rapid timetable reflects, in part, a desire to get ahead of Anthropic as the two frontier labs are increasingly tapping into a similar investor base, the \u200cpeople said, adding that OpenAI wants to capitalise on its recent revenue growth after launching new models.<\/p>\n

SoftBank Group, <\/a>Abu Dhabi-based MGX and other existing backers of OpenAI are in talks to join the round of about $30 billion, one of the people said.<\/p>\n

The acceleration underscores how closely the two AI developers are competing for capital as both pursue trillion-dollar price tags, amid growing concern about rising interest rates, significant volatility in technology stocks and rising scrutiny of AI valuations.<\/p>\n

OpenAI held meetings with long-only funds and sovereign wealth funds last week while \u200bAnthropic was hosting its own investor day<\/a>. OpenAI\u2019s funding round is expected to move faster than is typical for an offering of its size, the people said.<\/p>\n

Investors familiar with the company say OpenAI also needs capital \u200bto fund its substantial infrastructure commitments and bolster its balance sheet if a deterioration in the IPO markets further delays its planned 2027 listing.<\/p>\n

Though there is high demand for \u2060the shares of both companies, investors face the challenge of evaluating and allocating capital to two complex, competing offerings within days or weeks of each other.<\/p>\n

Some investors view OpenAI\u2019s financing push as an effort to lock in \u200bcapital from funds that might otherwise devote more of their resources to Anthropic\u2019s IPO, the people said.<\/p>\n

OpenAI and SoftBank declined to comment. Anthropic and MGX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Trying to head off comparisons<\/strong><\/h3>\n

OpenAI is pitching \u200binvestors on growth that accelerated after the launch of its GPT-6 Astra model, saying it had reached $50 billion in annualised revenue and expecting that figure to rise to $70 billion by year-end, according to one of the people.<\/p>\n

OpenAI has also cut prices on its cheaper models, which it said has boosted usage, and told investors it can further lower the price of AI models, the person added.<\/p>\n

Anthropic\u2019s annualised revenue reached roughly $65 billion by July, Reuters previously reported.<\/p>\n

Its quarterly revenue jumped to $16.8 billion in the third quarter from $11.6 billion in the second quarter this year, it told investors, but slowing month-to-month revenue growth has raised investor concerns about its valuation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

OpenAI is seeking to complete the fundraising before Anthropic\u2019s financial disclosures give investors a fuller picture of its business and \u200binvite comparisons between the two companies, one person said.<\/p>\n

The disclosures could prompt investors to press OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar for more details about the company\u2019s revenue growth and financial outlook, the person added. OpenAI records revenue on a net basis by \u200csubtracting partner shares \u2060upfront.<\/p>\n

It has accused Anthropic of inflating<\/a> its revenue by counting the full, gross value of contracts sold through third-party cloud providers. Anthropic told Reuters earlier that it follows established accounting practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpenAI could want to set its own valuation and not have to worry about a comp (comparison),\u201d said Edward Best, co-chair of capital markets at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, who is not working on the deal and commented on a hypothetical basis. \u201cIt\u2019s really a two-horse race in terms of being public.\u201d<\/p>\n

OpenAI was last valued at $852 billion<\/a> in March this year, after a record-breaking $122 billion funding round, including a commitment from Amazon.com<\/a>, which agreed to invest up to $50 billion in the lab.<\/p>\n

The Financial Times previously reported some details of OpenAI\u2019s potential fundraising.<\/p>\n

<\/a>IPO plans hit by market jitters<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Several companies preparing to go \u200bpublic have decided to wait until after Anthropic\u2019s \u2060planned IPO, wary of competing for investor demand amid market volatility and a pullback in AI stocks, bankers and investors said.<\/p>\n

Some late-stage companies are also timing private fundraising rounds to avoid coinciding with Anthropic\u2019s expected debut, the bankers and investors said.<\/p>\n

Some existing and prospective Anthropic investors have argued for a valuation closer to $1.5 trillion<\/a> for its market debut \u2014 \u200binstead of the desired $2 trillion \u2014 after the AI startup\u2019s third-quarter results fell short of expectations, Reuters reported last week.<\/p>\n

The reassessment comes amid a choppy market since September, with \u200bvolatility in oil prices, rising \u2060bond yields and growing concerns about AI safety weighing on investor appetite for technology stocks.<\/p>\n

Investors are also scrutinising the cost of AI infrastructure, including the debt needed to finance the data centres powering the boom.<\/p>\n

At the centre of the latest concerns is cloud provider CoreWeave, whose shares and debt tumbled last week as investors scrutinised the nearly $50 billion in borrowings used to fund its rapid expansion.<\/p>\n

The uncertainty has disrupted what had been expected to be a busy autumn for IPOs, with companies reassessing their \u2060listing plans amid \u200bmarket volatility and concerns about valuations.<\/p>\n

Blackstone- backed AirTrunk REIT, Nvidia- backed Firmus and SoftBank-backed SB Energy have either pulled or paused their listings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nuclear services company \u200bHoltec cited a \u201cperfect storm,\u201d driven mainly by uncertainty around data-centre demand, when it pulled its US listing last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Companies in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, widely viewed as a proxy for AI-related semiconductor demand, have shed $1.6 trillion in less than two weeks, while AI infrastructure companies have come under particular \u200bpressure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OpenAI is racing to secure investor commitments before rival Anthropic\u2019s expected public market debut in mid-November, in an unusually fast fundraising round that could value the ChatGPT maker at over $1.4 trillion, according to two \u200bpeople familiar with the matter. The rapid timetable reflects, in part, a desire to get ahead of Anthropic as the two frontier labs are increasingly tapping into a similar investor base, the \u200cpeople said, adding that OpenAI wants to capitalise on its recent revenue growth after launching new models. SoftBank Group, Abu Dhabi-based MGX and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}