OpenAI explores fresh funding round valuing company above $1.2 trillion ahead of IPO

Investors have approached OpenAI with proposals for a new funding round that would value the company above $1.2 trillion, according to reporting from CNBC and the Financial Times. The hedge in that sentence is the story: CNBC's account states that no formal discussions are underway and that OpenAI is not currently engaged in conversations, while the FT describes talks at an early stage, initiated by investors rather than by the company, with the figure liable to change. OpenAI has not confirmed it will proceed.

The scale of the step-up is what makes an unconfirmed approach newsworthy. OpenAI raised $122 billion at a $852 billion valuation in March, so a round struck above $1.2 trillion would reprice the company roughly 40% higher inside six months. Part of the interest is reported to be structural rather than operational: some investors framed the round as a mechanism for employees to sell stock, which would make it closer in spirit to the roughly $7 billion secondary sale reported in August than to a fresh capital raise for building.

The IPO timeline is the other half. CFO Sarah Friar has told employees the company will be public in 2027, and sooner if the business continues to inflect, while Sam Altman has said a listing now would be ill-advised and ruled out 2026. A large pre-IPO private round is consistent with that sequencing: it funds the build without accepting public-market discipline yet, and it sets a reference mark that a later listing would be measured against.

Two cautions for readers. Revenue figures attached to this story vary materially between outlets rewriting the same FT piece, so no run-rate number here should be treated as settled. And the gap between the headlines and the bodies is unusually wide: most headlines compress an investor approach into language that reads as an active raise. What to watch is whether OpenAI confirms a process at all, who anchors it, and whether the structure favors employee liquidity or new capital.