OpenAI has so far managed to secure commitments from investors for only about $11 billion, which is less than half of its initial $30 billion goal, reports The Wall Street Journal citing knowledgeable sources. Fundraising is ongoing, but the company has revised the parameters of the round: it now expects to bring the total amount of raised funds to $20 billion. According to the publication, anxiety surrounding the sustainability of the AI boom has cooled the interest of several large investors, who have become more selective about deals in the sector.
Valuation cut, IPO on the horizon
Under the discussed deal, OpenAI is valued at $1.25 trillion — noticeably lower than the $1.4 trillion the company previously expected. The ChatGPT developer is preparing to go public, which, according to reports, could happen as early as the beginning of next year. The company has notified shareholders of its intention to continue fundraising in the coming weeks and plans to approach family offices and wealthy private investors to close the remainder of the round.
The AI market is cooling
Investor caution amid OpenAI's valuation cut is part of a broader trend. A large-scale sell-off of tech stocks occurred in the stock market following disappointing results from Google, Amazon, and Intel. According to the WSJ, investors have begun to select companies more carefully and scrutinize deal terms before investing in projects related to artificial intelligence. This has directly affected the pace and scale of closing OpenAI's funding round.
Revenue race: Anthropic outpaces OpenAI
At the same time, OpenAI is striving to accelerate its revenue growth, where it has been overtaken by Anthropic amid the popularity of the Claude Code service. Anthropic has already disclosed documents for its public offering, showing explosive business growth in recent quarters: from the first to the second quarter, the company's revenue more than doubled to $11.6 billion. OpenAI grew its revenue by approximately 18% to $6.7 billion over the same period. However, as the publication emphasizes, directly comparing these figures should be done with caution.
Accounting differences and model pricing
The difference in reporting is explained by how the companies account for sales through cloud partners: Anthropic reflects the full value of relevant sales, taking into account the partners' share of expenses, whereas OpenAI deducts it from revenue. According to the WSJ, in the second quarter Anthropic posted a small operating profit, while OpenAI's operating losses increased. At the same time, OpenAI recently lowered prices for its newest models, and third-party data cited by the publication indicates that this helped it regain some market share in competition with Anthropic.
