Analysis
OpenAI has closed the first tranche of its newest funding round, pulling in about $11 billion at a $1.25 trillion valuation -- short of the $1.4 trillion the ChatGPT maker had been asking for, Bloomberg reported, as relayed by Tech Funding News.
The round is now aiming for roughly $20 billion in total, leaving close to $9 billion still to close, which the report says could happen "in the coming weeks."
WHAT CHANGED: Pulse previously reported on November 6 that OpenAI had raised $11 billion and was expected to brief investors on the round "as soon as next week." That tranche has now actually closed, and the valuation attached to it -- $1.25 trillion -- is the first hard number reported for this specific round, confirming it landed below the $1.4 trillion OpenAI originally sought.
“OpenAI, founded in San Francisco in December 2015, builds ChatGPT, the Codex coding agent and an enterprise platform it calls OpenAI Frontier.”
What OpenAI does
OpenAI, founded in San Francisco in December 2015, builds ChatGPT, the Codex coding agent and an enterprise platform it calls OpenAI Frontier. Enterprise clients now account for roughly 40% of the company's revenue on top of consumer subscriptions and API usage fees -- the mix now central to how investors are pricing the company's next round.
How much has OpenAI raised
The new tranche follows a $122 billion round OpenAI closed at the end of March 2026, which set its post-money valuation at $852 billion. The largest backers in that round were:
- Amazon -- $50 billion commitment ($15 billion upfront, $35 billion contingent on conditions)
- Nvidia -- $30 billion commitment
- SoftBank -- $30 billion commitment
- Individual and financial investors -- roughly $3 billion combined, including Andreessen Horowitz
The $1.25 trillion mark in this new raise is about 47% above OpenAI's prior valuation -- a real step up even though it landed well under the $1.4 trillion OpenAI originally sought.
A separate report from Tekedia put OpenAI's monthly revenue at roughly $2 billion as of its March 2026 disclosures.
Who invested in OpenAI's new round
Bloomberg's report did not name the investors in this specific tranche. Earlier reporting from Tech Funding News, citing CNBC, said UAE-based investors and Coatue Management were expected to lead, with MGX anticipated to be the single largest participant, and Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz expected to join -- none of that lineup has been confirmed in this week's reporting, so it should be treated as reported rather than settled.
AI funding market and competitors
OpenAI isn't raising in a vacuum. Rival Anthropic has also filed its S-1, and Pulse has previously reported that its own IPO target has fallen to roughly $1.2 trillion-$1.3 trillion, down from nearly $2 trillion floated in early October.
Both labs are effectively running parallel processes -- private mega-rounds that double as pre-IPO price discovery -- and both have seen their numbers come down from where they started: OpenAI's own ask fell from $1.4 trillion and Anthropic's from roughly $2 trillion over the same several-week stretch, amid a broader AI-stock selloff.
Tech Funding News calculates the new $1.25 trillion valuation at roughly 18 times OpenAI's reported annualized revenue run rate of near $70 billion as of September -- a multiple that is rich by any public-market standard but has become typical for frontier AI labs still burning cash on compute.
The counterweight
However large the headline number, a lower valuation than originally sought is still a valuation cut, not a victory lap: Bloomberg ties the discount to investor doubts about AI infrastructure spending and to possible regulatory friction around data-center construction after the US midterm elections.
Raising $11 billion of a hoped-for $20 billion also means OpenAI is only about 55% of the way to its revised target, with roughly $9 billion still uncommitted.
What to watch next
The remaining $9 billion closing "in the coming weeks" will show whether the softer price was a one-time repricing or the start of a trend across frontier AI fundraising. Diligence teams should also watch whether the investor list Tech Funding News described -- UAE capital, Coatue, MGX -- actually materializes when OpenAI confirms the round, since sovereign-linked money carries different return timelines than traditional venture funds.