OpenAI reported $122B private raise
Reports say OpenAI closed a roughly $122 billion private funding round at an $852 billion post‑money valuation, a transaction described as one of the largest private raises ever. The coverage also notes retail channels opened for pre‑IPO exposure and projected long‑term ad revenue expectations that include $2.5 billion this year and much larger figures out to 2030. (thedeepdive.ca) (startupnews.fyi)
OpenAI said on March 31 that it closed a $122 billion private funding round at an $852 billion post-money valuation. (openai.com) The company said the round was anchored by Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank, with Microsoft continuing to participate alongside Andreessen Horowitz, T. Rowe Price, BlackRock, Blackstone, Fidelity, Sequoia Capital, Temasek, Thrive Capital, and other firms. (openai.com) OpenAI also said it raised more than $3 billion from individual investors through bank channels, its first such retail-style distribution, and said its shares will be included in several exchange-traded funds managed by ARK Invest. (openai.com) A private funding round is money sold to investors before a stock market listing, and the post-money valuation is the company’s paper value after that cash goes in. At $852 billion, OpenAI’s latest figure puts it among the most highly valued private companies in the world. (openai.com) (cnbc.com) OpenAI said the money will fund more computing power, product development, and broader deployment of its tools. In the same announcement, the company said ChatGPT was nearing 1 billion weekly active users and that OpenAI was generating $2 billion in revenue per month. (openai.com) The financing arrived as reports surfaced that OpenAI is showing investors a much larger advertising business than it has publicly discussed before. Reuters, citing Axios, reported on April 9 that OpenAI expects $2.5 billion in advertising revenue in 2026 and $100 billion by 2030. (usnews.com) That investor presentation, as described by Reuters, projected ad revenue rising to $11 billion in 2027, $25 billion in 2028, and $53 billion in 2029, based on a forecast that OpenAI’s products could reach 2.75 billion weekly users by 2030. Reuters said OpenAI did not immediately respond to its request for comment on the ad forecast. (usnews.com) Reuters separately reported on April 8 that OpenAI plans to reserve a portion of shares in a future initial public offering for individual investors, according to comments Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar made to CNBC. That would extend the company’s push to broaden ownership beyond venture firms and sovereign wealth funds. (msn.com) (openai.com) For now, the company is still private, the ad projections remain reported investor targets rather than audited results, and the new cash gives OpenAI more room to pay for the chips, data centers, and distribution needed to support its next phase. (openai.com) (usnews.com)
