The round would make it the most valuable private company ever — and set the bar for Anthropic's IPO

The round raises the stakes for the AI IPO race. Anthropic, which raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation in May, is reportedly seeking $1.5 to $2 trillion for its public debut — and OpenAI's new private mark makes that target easier to defend.

CNBC reports the UAE money could come bundled with a deal for more computing capacity in the Emirates, which OpenAI badly needs: the company has told investors it plans to spend $600 billion on compute by 2030.