U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI is rapidly securing approximately $30 billion in investments ahead of its competitor Anthropic's initial public offering (IPO).
Reuters reported on October 19, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
According to the report, OpenAI is moving quickly to raise funds before Anthropic's IPO, scheduled for mid-November.
As both AI developers aim for multi-trillion dollar valuations, competition to attract investors is intensifying. Some investors view OpenAI's actions as an attempt to secure funding ahead of anticipated investments in Anthropic's IPO.
Abu Dhabi-based MGX and existing investors in OpenAI are reportedly in discussions to participate in the $30 billion investment round.
OpenAI and SoftBank declined to comment on the matter, while Anthropic and MGX did not respond.
This investment round is expected to value OpenAI at over $140 billion. In March, OpenAI raised $122 billion, achieving a valuation of $85.2 billion, which is more than a 60% increase.
One source indicated that OpenAI has explained to investors that its annualized revenue has surged to $50 billion following the launch of the GPT-6 Astra model, with projections of reaching $70 billion by year-end. OpenAI noted that lowering prices for its models has increased usage and could further reduce AI model costs.
Another source stated that OpenAI aims to complete its fundraising before Anthropic's financial disclosures allow for comparisons between the two companies. OpenAI has criticized Anthropic for inflating its revenue by counting the total amount of contracts sold through third-party cloud providers as revenue, while excluding fees from that total.
Anthropic sells its cloud models through platforms like Amazon AWS and Google Cloud, recognizing the total amount including fees as revenue and later accounting for those fees as expenses. In contrast, OpenAI has recognized only the amount excluding fees as revenue. Anthropic has stated that it follows established accounting practices.
Anthropic's revenue increased from $4.7 billion in the first quarter to $11.6 billion in the second quarter and $16.8 billion in the third quarter, but concerns have arisen in the market about a potential slowdown in growth. Some investors have argued that the expected valuation for the IPO should be set lower at $1.5 trillion instead of the hoped-for $2 trillion.
Since September, increased volatility in oil prices, rising bond yields, and heightened concerns about AI safety have dampened investor sentiment in tech stocks, leading some companies preparing for IPOs to postpone their schedules until after Anthropic's IPO.
Global private equity firm Blackstone-backed Airtrunk, Nvidia-backed Firmus, and SoftBank-backed SB Energy are among AI infrastructure companies that have withdrawn or postponed their IPO plans.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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