THE SHORT VERSION

OpenAI banked $11 billion at $1.25 trillion — after asking for $30 billion

A tiny unremarkable building labeled OPENAI with its door marked IPO stands dwarfed beneath a gigantic retail price tag reading '$1.25 TRILLION' hanging from its roof; a tiny suited figure with a briefcase looks up at the tag. — Machine Age Cartoon · Zimbo

OpenAI has closed an initial $11 billion in new funding at a $1.25 trillion valuation, Bloomberg reported on November 6, with Reuters confirming the figures from its own source. The money is wired; the round itself has not closed and could reach about $20 billion in the coming weeks.

The first close falls well short of what OpenAI originally sought: $30 billion at a valuation as high as $1.5 trillion. Investors including SoftBank and MGX took part, but several large investors scaled back commitments as public AI stocks sold off and sentiment cooled around data-center spending.

The repricing lands the same week Anthropic’s planned IPO was also marked down by prospective buyers — Bloomberg reported some now value Anthropic as low as $1.1 trillion, against the roughly $2 trillion investors expected a month ago. The two labs are now fundraising into the same skeptical market.