OpenAI Seeks $100 Billion in Funding Ahead of 2026 IPO

OpenAI is seeking up to $100 billion in new capital to fund the massive operational and infrastructure costs associated with training frontier AI models. The fundraising round could value the company at approximately $830 billion and is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2026. Amazon.com Inc. has emerged as the largest potential contributor, with CEO Andy Jassy negotiating an investment of up to $50 billion through a "chips-for-equity" arrangement that would grant the startup access to proprietary Trainium and Inferentia AI chips via Amazon Web Services.

Other major participants in the round include SoftBank Group, which is in talks to invest an additional $30 billion, and Nvidia, which may contribute up to $30 billion. Microsoft, a longstanding backer that recently disclosed a $7.6 billion investment to bring its total commitment over $13 billion, is reportedly considering a smaller addition of less than $10 billion. CEO Sam Altman has also sought roughly $50 billion from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to diversify funding and reduce reliance on Microsoft.

Parallel to this fundraising, the company is preparing for an initial public offering targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026. To facilitate this, OpenAI hired Chief Accounting Officer Ajmere Dale and Corporate Business Finance Officer Cynthia Gaylor. The company is competing with rival Anthropic to be the first major generative AI startup to go public, though it does not expect to reach profitability until 2030. These developments have drawn antitrust scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission over potential circular financing, while the company continues to face a lawsuit from co-founder Elon Musk seeking $134 billion in damages.