OpenAI raises about $11B at $1.25T valuation and abandons IPO plans

OpenAI has closed roughly $11B in the first phase of a new raise at a $1.25T valuation, and says up to another $9B could follow in the coming weeks. Alongside the raise, the company abandoned its IPO plans, keeping its capital structure private for now.

The structure gives OpenAI flexibility: a staged round lets it add investors as demand materializes rather than pricing everything at once. Staying private avoids quarterly disclosure of compute spending and losses while its user base grows; ChatGPT reportedly added 200 million users in 60 days to top 1.2 billion weekly actives.

The contrast with Anthropic is the week's storyline. Anthropic is preparing a listing for the week of November 16 at an estimated $1.1-1.3T valuation, while OpenAI, at a slightly higher private mark, is stepping back from public markets. Both labs face enormous compute bills, so how each funds that spend now diverges: public equity for one, private rounds for the other.

Not everyone reads the news as strength. HN user cmiles8 argued "the real headline is they couldn't hit targets", calling the round undersubscribed against a reported $30B goal. Watch whether the additional $9B closes, who the investors are, and whether the dropped IPO is a pause or a reversal.