OpenAI raises US$122 billion and hits US$852 billion valuation in Silicon Valley’s biggest private deal
OpenAI just pulled off the biggest private funding round in Silicon Valley history — and it is already positioning parts of the deal for individual investors.
According to CNBC, OpenAI raised US$122bn in a new funding round that values the company at US$852bn.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that this is the largest funding round in Silicon Valley history and said it comes ahead of a blockbuster IPO expected by the end of the year.
According to CNBC, the round lifted earlier commitments of US$110bn to a total of US$122bn in capital.
SoftBank co-led the deal alongside investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and D. E. Shaw Ventures.
The Financial Times said Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank together committed US$110bn.
Amazon’s US$50bn package includes US$15bn upfront and a US$35bn tranche that depends on OpenAI either going public or achieving artificial general intelligence, which Sarah Friar defined as “the majority of economically valuable human work being able to be done by [AI] agents.”
Microsoft, a long-time OpenAI partner, also took part in the round, although OpenAI did not disclose how much it invested on Tuesday, CNBC reported.
The outlet added that, as of late last year, Microsoft had already put in more than US$13bn
The Financial Times reported that venture capital firms including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and Thrive Capital added billions more.
OpenAI is using this round to widen its shareholder base beyond institutions.
The company raised more than US$3bn from individual investors via banks and arranged to be included in several exchange-traded funds run by Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest.
The Times reported that Friar described these as the largest private placements the participating banks had executed.
The company framed this broader participation as “giving more people the opportunity to share in the upside economics of OpenAI and the AI era.”
Friar said expanding access aligns with OpenAI’s mission to build AI “for the benefit of humanity,” which she framed as extending both the technology and its financial upside to more people.
She noted that only wealthy retail investors can currently buy in and described broadening that pool as one of her main priorities.
The Times also highlighted risks tied to that strategy.
The paper said growing retail exposure to loss-making private companies is likely to concern some observers because individual investors tend to be less sophisticated than venture capital firms, often have fewer protections than earlier backers and usually enter later at higher valuations.
It added that retail investors, who became a mainstay of private capital over the past decade, have started to pull money from some funds this year during a market downturn.
OpenAI remains far from break-even despite its scale.
CNBC reported that the company is generating about US$2bn in revenue per month and brought in US$13.1bn last year, but it is still burning cash and has not yet turned a profit.
The Financial Times reported that roughly 60 percent of revenue comes from its consumer business and the rest from enterprises, while the Wall Street Journal said OpenAI expects about half of its revenue to come from enterprises by year-end.
To support that shift, OpenAI is refocusing its product line-up.
The Journal reported that the company is concentrating resources on a new “superapp” for developers and business users, especially productivity tools such as coding assistants.
As part of that move, OpenAI has scrapped its Sora video app and a planned erotic chatbot, according to the Financial Times, and has backed away from some heavy spending plans while closing certain products to control costs, as reported by CNBC.
OpenAI’s user base remains a major asset.
ChatGPT, launched in 2022, now has more than 900m weekly active users and over 50m subscribers, while the Financial Times reported that OpenAI is trying to monetise roughly 900m individual users and deepen its push into business clients.
The funding round also intensifies scrutiny of OpenAI’s IPO plans and valuation.
CNBC reported that closing the deal puts chief executive Sam Altman under pressure to justify the company’s price tag as it prepares for a potential listing.
Reuters previously said OpenAI was laying the groundwork for an IPO that could value it at up to US$1tn, with a filing possible in the second half of 2026, even as its chief financial officer said at the time that an IPO was not in the company’s near-term plans.
