OpenAI is accelerating a $30 billion funding round aiming for a valuation over $1.4 trillion ahead of Anthropic's expected mid-November 2026 IPO. As both AI developers compete for capital, OpenAI is pitching $50 billion in annualized revenue following its GPT-6 Astra launch. Meanwhile, market volatility, falling chip stocks, and scrutiny over Anthropic's $600 billion in infrastructure commitments and quarterly slowdowns have led several tech firms to pause listing plans.
OpenAI pre-IPO fundraising round
- ▪OpenAI held meetings with long-only funds and sovereign wealth funds during the week of October 12, 2026, ahead of Anthropic's planned public market debut
- ▪OpenAI is seeking to accelerate a $30 billion fundraising round before rival Anthropic's expected mid-November 2026 IPO to lock in capital from funds that might otherwise allocate resources to Anthropic
- ▪SoftBank Group and Abu Dhabi-based MGX are in talks with OpenAI to participate in OpenAI's $30 billion funding round
Revenue accounting dispute
- ▪OpenAI records revenue on a net basis by subtracting partner shares upfront, while accusing Anthropic of inflating revenue by counting the full gross value of cloud-provider contracts
- ▪Anthropic stated that it follows established accounting practices regarding its revenue reporting
Anthropic revenue and IPO valuation
- ▪Existing and prospective Anthropic investors have argued for a reduced valuation of $1.5 trillion for Anthropic's market debut instead of $2 trillion following lower-than-expected third-quarter results
- ▪Anthropic recorded annualized revenue of roughly $65 billion by July 2026, with third-quarter quarterly revenue rising to $16.8 billion from $11.6 billion in the second quarter of 2026
Anthropic net loss increase
- ▪Anthropic's increased net loss in the first half of 2026 was largely driven by accounting adjustments linked to financial instruments used to raise capital rather than operating expenses alone
- ▪According to a draft IPO prospectus reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Anthropic reported an $80.7 billion net loss for the six months ended June 30, 2026, compared to a $13 billion loss in the prior-year period
Anthropic computing infrastructure spending
- ▪Anthropic agreed to spend up to $86 billion renting NVIDIA chips through AI infrastructure providers Nscale and Lambda under contracts extending into 2033 and 2034
- ▪Anthropic disclosed in its draft IPO prospectus more than $600 billion in future computing infrastructure commitments, including over $160 billion tied to leasing Google chips through Broadcom
- ▪Anthropic spent nearly $9 billion on computing capacity in the first half of 2026, exceeding its total 2025 infrastructure expenditure of $7.3 billion
- ▪Anthropic committed to $111 billion in cloud computing spending on Google Cloud, $110 billion on Amazon Web Services, and $31 billion on Microsoft services over seven to 10 years
Broader AI market downturn
- ▪Cloud provider CoreWeave experienced sharp drops in its stock and debt prices during October 2026 as investors scrutinized nearly $50 billion in borrowings used for data center expansion
- ▪Shares of semiconductor companies in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index shed $1.6 trillion in market value over a two-week period in October 2026
- ▪Market volatility, rising bond yields, and falling AI stock valuations prompted companies including AirTrunk REIT, Firmus, SB Energy, and Holtec to pause or pull their planned US public listings
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