OpenAI has scaled back the target for its latest funding round by $10 billion and is now seeking to raise $20 billion at a $1.25 trillion valuation, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
The revised target is a marked step down from the company’s earlier plan, reported by Reuters earlier this month, to raise $30 billion at a $1.4 trillion valuation. Both the amount sought and the valuation attached to the round have therefore come down from that earlier ambition.
OpenAI set Friday as the deadline for investors to commit to the round, the Financial Times said. Its first close is nevertheless expected to raise less than $20 billion, after some investors reduced their allocations, according to the report.
The timing matters because OpenAI had been racing to lock in commitments before the expected public market debut in mid-November of rival Anthropic, Reuters reported earlier this month. The two leading AI laboratories court many of the same deep-pocketed investors, so a rival listing can sharpen competition for their attention and their capital.
The report rests on unnamed sources cited by the Financial Times, and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours, according to Reuters. The company has not publicly confirmed the revised target, so the figures should be treated as reported rather than confirmed until OpenAI or its investors say more.
Even at the lower level, a $20 billion raise would still rank among the largest private financings ever attempted, and a $1.25 trillion valuation would still place OpenAI far above almost every other private company in the world. The story, then, is less that demand has disappeared than that investors are haggling harder over price and size at the top of the market.
The revision also lands amid sharper questions about the pace and returns of AI spending, after a bruising October for technology shares. Whether the scaled-back round is read as a brief pause or as a broader cooling will depend in large part on what the first close actually raises, and on how Anthropic’s debut is received next month.
For now, the key numbers to watch are the size of that first close, the final valuation investors accept, and whether any further investors trim their commitments before the round is completed.
Sources: Reuters, “OpenAI cuts funding target by $10 billion, FT reports”, 31 October 2026, https://www.reuters.com/business/openai-cuts-funding-target-by-10-billion-ft-reports-2026-10-31/ — Financial Times reporting as relayed by Reuters.
