❯ OpenAI seeks a valuation above $1.5 trillion, after investors floated a proposal near $1.2 trillion

Trillion-dollar talksInvestors approached OpenAI with a proposal valuing it at about $1.2 trillion, while the company believes customer growth supports $1.5 trillion or more, according to the New York Times and other reports. Talks are preliminary and the amount to be raised has not been formally disclosed. The higher figure is more than double a previous valuation of roughly $730 billion.

The valuation gapThe $300 billion difference is close to the market capitalization of a global technology major. Investors will focus on revenue from ChatGPT subscriptions, enterprise customers and coding agents; OpenAI wants the price to capture newer models and customer retention. Training, inference and data-center contracts still create enormous cash requirements, so a higher valuation also hardens expectations around growth and IPO timing.

Nothing is settledThis is not a completed financing. $1.2 trillion and $1.5 trillion represent an investor proposal and the company’s ambition, not one transaction price. Investors must decide whether falling model costs can accompany revenue growth; OpenAI must show that a high price does not merely postpone pressure until an IPO. Enterprise traction is the strongest bargaining chip, while the profit path remains hardest to verify.

▪ SIGNALThe $300 billion gap captures two competing views of whether OpenAI’s customer growth can cover its compute bill.