OpenAI reportedly nears $30B round at $1.25T pre-money valuation

CNBC reported that OpenAI is close to finalizing a round of up to $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation, with Coatue and UAE-based investors leading. People familiar with the matter describe the capital as a bridge toward a possible 2027 IPO. The UAE portion could also come bundled with a deal for more computing capacity in the Gulf. Bloomberg reported a similar raise in late September at $1.4 trillion, so the price has come down since then. Terms can still change, and no closing announcement has been made. The company pitched that higher mark to backers including BlackRock and MGX earlier this month. For founders, the signal is that frontier labs keep raising at enormous scale while preparing for public markets. Their pricing sets the benchmark that every model-layer startup is measured against, so closing terms matter.