OpenAI at $1.2tn: Altman Bets the Market Isn't Done
2 trillion, according to the Financial Times, positioning Sam Altman's firm to capitalise on surging demand for its technology before a planned initial public offering.
OpenAI at $1.2tn: Altman Bets the Market Isn't Done
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OpenAI is weighing a new funding round that would value the company at $1.2 trillion, according to the Financial Times, positioning Sam Altman's firm to capitalise on surging demand for its technology before a planned initial public offering.
The move comes on the back of recent model launches that have deepened OpenAI's commercial foothold across enterprise and consumer markets. At $1.2 trillion, the valuation would place OpenAI among the most valuable private companies in history — a number that would have read as fiction five years ago and now reads as a floor, not a ceiling.
The funding round, if completed, would give Altman significant leverage heading into an IPO at a moment when investor appetite for AI infrastructure remains intense despite broader market uncertainty. Oaktree portfolio manager Danielle Poli noted this week that upward pressure on yields persists because investors are not yet convinced inflation has been fully contained — a headwind that complicates any public listing timeline.
Separately, OpenAI is backing a bipartisan legislative push in Washington to address AI-amplified biological threats, endorsing three bills that would standardise biological data handling and build defences against misuse of advanced AI systems, per Politico.
Together the moves sketch a company managing two pressures simultaneously: the commercial race to dominate AI infrastructure, and a regulatory environment that is tightening faster than most of Silicon Valley anticipated.
*By Isla Camilleri, Global Affairs & Lifestyle Editor*
