OpenAI in Talks With UAE Funds and BlackRock for $30 Billion Round at About $1.4 Trillion

OpenAI is in talks with several United Arab Emirates investment funds, including Abu Dhabi-based MGX, and with BLK to help anchor a new funding round of at least $30 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The Gulf funds are discussing forming a consortium that would contribute as much as $10 billion in aggregate, and the round is expected to value OpenAI at roughly $1.4 trillion before the new money. MGX has invested in earlier OpenAI and Anthropic rounds and raised nearly $50 billion this year, according to the Bloomberg report.

The talks would mark a steep step-up from OpenAI's last raise in March, when it secured $122 billion at an $852 billion post-money valuation. OpenAI has also pushed back any plans for an initial public offering until at least next year, so private rounds of this size remain its main source of capital for compute and expansion. That matters for public companies whose AI spending plans are tied to OpenAI's ability to keep paying for capacity, and for investors weighing how large AI developers fund themselves before going public.

The report landed as Sam Altman faced criticism over comments in a Politico interview published Oct. 4, in which he said the world should accept "some bad things happening" for the benefits of AI, while drawing a line at catastrophic risks. ZeroHedge, which paired the two stories, reported pushback from figures in both parties, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. No report ties the funding talks to the remarks.

What to watch: whether the round closes at the reported size and valuation, how much BlackRock commits (no figure has been reported), and whether Washington's scrutiny of Altman's comments turns into hearings or rules that touch Gulf investment in US AI companies.