OpenAI secured about US$11bn, not US$30bn, and cut its target to US$20bn
What the reports of 22 to 31 October say about OpenAI's latest funding round: its size, its valuation and what OpenAI itself has confirmed, which is nothing.
OpenAI has secured about US$11bn for its latest funding round, less than half of the US$30bn it set out to raise, The Wall Street Journal reported on 31 October.1 The same day the Financial Times reported that OpenAI had cut its target by US$10bn, to about US$20bn, at a valuation of US$1.25tn, down from the US$1.4tn it first pitched; the first close is expected to raise less than US$20bn after some investors reduced their allocations.2 The round has not closed, and OpenAI has not commented.3
01Three numbers, three reports
On 22 October CNBC reported that OpenAI was close to raising up to US$30bn at a US$1.25tn valuation, led by investors from the United Arab Emirates alongside Coatue, and was aiming for signatures by the end of the following week.4 The valuation had been lowered from the US$1.4tn OpenAI had pitched, the FT reported, a cut of US$150bn by Bloomberg’s account.5 By 31 October the target was about US$20bn.23
OpenAI has about US$11bn committed, against a target that was US$30bn and is now US$20bn
Round size as reported, US$bn, 22 to 31 October
Source: CNBC (22 October); Financial Times via Reuters and CNBC (31 October); The Wall Street Journal via The Decoder (31 October) · as of 31 October 2026 · All reported, none confirmed by OpenAI. The targets are ceilings (“up to”)
The FT, as Reuters relayed it, expects a UAE consortium including MGX to be the largest participant, with Founders Fund, Coatue, Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz also taking part, and says wealthy individuals will be able to invest later in a retail offering at the same US$1.25tn.2 The WSJ, as The Decoder summarised it, says OpenAI now plans to raise the rest from family offices and high-net-worth individuals.1
02Against March, and against the market
OpenAI closed its last round on 31 March with US$122bn of committed capital at an US$852bn post-money valuation, and said then that it was generating US$2bn of revenue a month.6 US$1.25tn is 47% above that valuation; US$11bn is less than a tenth of that round, by our arithmetic.
The reports came at the end of a falling week. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.9% on Friday 30 October and closed 7.8% below its 6 October record, Reuters reported, linking the sell-off to worries about heavy AI spending; it wrote that OpenAI wants to close the round partly to get ahead of Anthropic’s expected listing.2 The Decoder’s reading, in its headline, is that “big investors lose their AI appetite”.1 How much of the shortfall is the market and how much is the price, no report says. How the four largest buyers of AI capacity are paying for their own spending is in our piece on Big Tech’s bonds and share sales.
03What OpenAI has confirmed, and what is not known
- Confirmed by OpenAI: nothing on this round. It did not respond to CNBC or Reuters.23
- Not known: the final size, whether US$1.25tn is before or after the new money, which investors cut their allocations and by how much, and when the round closes.
- The listing: OpenAI filed its prospectus confidentially with the SEC in June, CNBC reported; its finance chief, Sarah Friar, told staff in August it “will be a public company in 2027”.4
Sources
- The Decoder, Matthias Bastian: OpenAI raises just $11 billion of its $30 billion target as big investors lose their AI appetite — 31 October 2026 Summarises The Wall Street Journal's report of the same day.
- Reuters (on CNBC): OpenAI slashes funding target by $10 billion amid tech rout, FT reports — 31 October 2026
- CNBC, Ashley Capoot and Lora Kolodny: OpenAI pares fundraising goal, now seeking up to $20 billion in latest round — 31 October 2026
- CNBC, Kate Rooney and Ashley Capoot: OpenAI nears up to $30 billion funding round at $1.25 trillion valuation led by UAE investors — 22 October 2026
- The Next Web, Cristian Dina: OpenAI cuts its valuation target to $1.25tn as it nears a $30bn round — 25 October 2026 Cites the Financial Times and Bloomberg.
- The Next Web, Cristian Dina: OpenAI closes record $122 billion round at $852 billion valuation — 31 March 2026 Reports OpenAI's own announcement.
Related on TechBag: how Big Tech now funds its AI spending, the quarterly capex line and Microsoft Azure.
Disclosure. TechBag is a software reseller: it earns a margin when a reader buys through it, including from vendors named here. The analysis is TechBag’s own; no vendor paid for or saw this piece before publication. Facts are labelled reported, TechBag count or our view.
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