UAE investors lead OpenAI round valuing company at $1.25 trillion

Summary

• OpenAI is near closing up to $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion valuation.
• Investors from the United Arab Emirates and Coatue are leading the financing, people familiar said.
• The round is framed as a bridge ahead of a possible OpenAI public listing.

The latest

Up to $30 billion is being raised by OpenAI at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation, with investors from the United Arab Emirates leading the round alongside Coatue, according to people familiar with the deal who spoke to CNBC on condition of anonymity. The company told investors Thursday it wants signatures secured by the end of next week. The final size has not been set.

Details

• The numbers: The round reaches up to $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion valuation that excludes the new capital being raised, according to people familiar with the deal. Those people said the final size of the financing is still being determined, and OpenAI has not disclosed the identity of the Emirati investors involved.
• The lead investors: Investors from the United Arab Emirates are heading the financing alongside Coatue, the people said, in what is being positioned as an opportunistic bridge ahead of a potential initial public offering rather than a conventional pre-IPO growth round.
• The compute angle: Alongside the equity investment, OpenAI is negotiating a commercial agreement that would secure additional computing capacity from the UAE, according to one person familiar with the talks. Terms, duration and the size of that capacity were not disclosed.
• The spending scale: OpenAI told investors in February it is targeting roughly $600 billion in total compute spend by 2030, a figure that frames why the company keeps returning to capital markets and to sovereign-linked partners for infrastructure.
• How it started: Discussions for the new round began after investors approached OpenAI with proposals in September, CNBC previously reported. The approach came from the buyer side rather than from a company roadshow, according to that earlier reporting.
• The IPO file: OpenAI confidentially filed its prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June. The company has not said when it plans to debut on public markets, and no pricing range or listing venue has been announced.
• Conflicting signals: Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar told employees in August the company "will be a public company in 2027." One month later, Chief Executive Sam Altman said that right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public.
• The rival: Anthropic also filed its prospectus confidentially with regulators in June and is meeting prospective investors, CNBC reported earlier. It is reportedly seeking a valuation between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion in its offering.
• Anthropic's last round: In May, Anthropic closed a $65 billion funding round at a $965 billion valuation, a benchmark that sits below the valuation OpenAI is now pursuing and below what Anthropic is reportedly targeting in a listing.

Between the lines

Two signals in the reporting point the same direction. The round is described as a bridge rather than a final private raise, and the prospectus was filed confidentially in June without a disclosed debut date. Pairing the equity with a compute agreement suggests the Emirati money is buying more than a stake — it attaches infrastructure supply to the $600 billion spending target OpenAI gave investors.

What's next

Watch whether OpenAI secures investor signatures by the end of next week and what final size the round lands on. Also watch whether the separate UAE computing agreement is confirmed, and any SEC disclosure setting a listing date.

Source: CNBC