OpenAI funding round could exceed $100b: sources

OpenAI is nearing the completion of a funding round that could exceed US$100 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter, marking a potential record for the company.

The first phase of the round is expected to involve strategic investors such as Amazon, SoftBank, Nvidia, and Microsoft, with commitments potentially totaling close to US$100 billion.

These investments are anticipated to be finalized by the end of the month.

The subsequent phase, involving venture capital firms and sovereign wealth funds, could significantly increase the total funding.

The company’s valuation, including the new capital, might surpass US$850 billion, though its pre-money valuation is reported to remain at US$730 billion.

Representatives from OpenAI and the involved companies declined to comment.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

OpenAI’s reported $100 billion-plus raise would help fund a massive infrastructure bill

The round looks geared toward paying for existing and upcoming computing contracts rather than expanding headcount.
OpenAI’s five-year Oracle deal starts in 2027 and works out to about $60 billion a year, based on $300 billion over five years 1.
That pace runs around five times a mid-2025 annual revenue run-rate of roughly $10 to $12 billion, as reported elsewhere 1.
Over the next decade, OpenAI has reportedly signed more than $1 trillion in hardware and cloud infrastructure agreements 2.
Spending is split among several vendors, including a reported $38 billion partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Some Microsoft-related numbers are described as a purchase commitment tied to a 2025 restructuring, with terms not fully detailed in the source material provided here 2.

The AI funding boom is creating a circular and concentrated supplier-investor ecosystem

Amazon, Nvidia, and Microsoft back OpenAI while also selling core infrastructure, so money moves in a loop.
Oracle reportedly bought about $40 billion of Nvidia chips for a data center serving OpenAI under the Stargate project (a reported large-scale AI infrastructure effort) 3.
AWS is building Project Rainier, a supercluster of nearly 500,000 Trainium2 chips (AWS-designed AI accelerator processors) for Anthropic (an AI startup) 4.
This setup concentrates spending and reliance in a small set of cloud and chip firms, with strain possible if AI revenue lags infrastructure costs 2.