OpenAI is considering another private funding round ahead of its planned IPO, according to the Financial Times.
The GPT maker is in early conversations-initiated by investors-for a financing round that could bring its valuation to $1.2 trillion, the FT reported Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The potential round would inject fresh capital into the AI developer following the $122 billion raise in March at an $852 billion post-money valuation.
A source told the FT that OpenAI "needs capital" because it spent billions of dollars on training its models. The company spent $34 billion last year, including roughly $19 billion on research and development and nearly $6 billion on sales and marketing, according to a June FT report.
Meanwhile, the company is on track to generate more than $40 billion in annual revenue, Bloomberg reported last month. This would roughly double its run rate from the end of 2025.
OpenAI confidentially filed an IPO prospectus in June, but CEO Sam Altman said in a Fortune interview last week that the company is unlikely to go public this year.
"I actually think that, given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public, and we don't feel pressure on that," said Altman.
Meanwhile, Anthropic, the company behind Claude, reportedly told investors that it will be profitable for the second quarter as the firm gears up for a potential blockbuster IPO that could put it at a valuation of around $2 trillion.