OpenAI Looking to Raise More Money Ahead of Public Debut

0:00 Sticking with AI, OpenAI could be looking to raise more money before it heads to the public markets. The chat GBT maker is said to be in early talks with investors about a new funding round that could value it at more than $1,200,000,000,000. That's according to a Bloomberg source. Bloomberg Shirin Ghaffary leads our coverage of the Frontier Labs and is with us. Let's be very clear here. This sounds like this was an investor pool approaching OpenAI and saying, should we do this? This sounds like a good idea. But that 1,200,000,000,000 valuation, what would that represent relative to OpenAI's last private valuation?

0:38 That's right. So it would be a jump. You know, OpenAI's last private market valuation was, I believe, over 750,000,000,000. I'm not I don't remember offhand the exact number. But it would be, you know, potentially a big jump for it, but not as big as potentially some of the numbers being floated for Anthropics public listing, expected public listing coming up soon. So it'll be interesting to see if this round does happen, how it prices. There are some other reports out there that evaluation could be even higher. I think we we lose sight of the basics. Right? Remind us where OpenAI and Anthropic actually sit in their path to the public markets. We all assume that it will happen eventually, but right now, they've they file confidentially, and we're waiting.

1:24 That's right. So there's been all this talk in the AI industry about a potential slowdown and all this immense anxiety about the risks of AI right now. However, we don't see any signs so far of, Anthropics, expected IPO slowing down. And, it's sort of from the outside, still seems like full speed ahead here now. At the same time, they're having conversations about maybe having external auditors as you were mentioning earlier on your show. But we are still very much expecting and waiting for Anthropic to move forward with its s one as soon as in the coming days, weeks.

2:03 So compare and contrast, OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, gave an interview to Fortune this past week. And, basically, it looks like the IPO will happen next year at some point, but but he cited the current environment. What did he say? That's right. So Open Eye is taking, or has says Sam has made a little bit of a different sort of statement, right, than we're seeing with, with some others, and then he's he was saying that the IPO could be delayed or or rather that it would be a strange time or a moment for his company to go public right now. That being said, as we've reported, OpenAI has been considering, not going public this year, pushing that to 2027 predating this current wave of AI anxiety. So, our reporting indicates that that is certainly not the only factor or potentially the main factor here. That being said, yes, it is sort of a cognitive dissonance to be certainly for having conversations about all of this AI anxiety at the same time as some of, you know, the most highly valued private companies ever are are preparing to go public.