OpenAI races to close a $30 billion round before Anthropic's IPO

OpenAI is trying to speed up a funding round of about $30 billion so investor commitments are secured before Anthropic lists its shares in mid-November. The round could value the ChatGPT maker at more than $1.4 trillion. SoftBank and Abu Dhabi's MGX, both existing backers, are in talks to join.

The two labs are courting the same pool of money. OpenAI met long-only funds and sovereign wealth funds last week, while Anthropic held its own investor day. Some investors see OpenAI's timing as an attempt to lock in cash that might otherwise go into Anthropic's listing.

Revenue is part of the contest, and the numbers are not like for like. OpenAI says its annualised revenue reached $50 billion and expects $70 billion by the end of the year. Anthropic has told investors its third-quarter revenue rose to $16.8 billion from $11.6 billion in the second quarter. OpenAI books sales after subtracting the share kept by partners and has accused Anthropic of counting the full value of contracts sold through cloud providers. Anthropic says it follows established accounting practices.

OpenAI is planning its own listing for 2027. The new money would help it meet infrastructure commitments and cushion it if a weaker IPO market pushes that plan back.

Our take

This is a fight over who gets to be the safe big bet, and the scoreboard uses two different rulers. Expect both labs to lean on revenue claims that investors cannot easily compare.