As the frontier AI race enters a white-hot stage, the two giants of the AI field are waging a race-against-time battle for capital in the financial markets.
According to Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, OpenAI is currently racing against the clock to secure investor commitments, striving to speed up the completion of its new funding round before its rival Anthropic's expected IPO in mid-November (11月). Given the unusually rapid pace, this round is expected to move far faster than the typical timeline for fundraising of a similar size. If all goes well, OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, could see its valuation in this round surpass 1.4 trillion US dollars (approximately 9.37 trillion yuan).
This highly urgent fundraising arrangement directly reflects OpenAI's real motivation of locking in capital-market funds. As the two frontier labs increasingly clash over technology and commercialization, they are competing for the same pool of top-tier investors. Last week, just as Anthropic held its investor day, OpenAI also held intensive meetings with a number of long-term investment funds and sovereign wealth funds.
It is understood that SoftBank Group, Abu Dhabi-based MGX, and other existing OpenAI investors are currently in deep talks about participating in this round of financing of approximately 30 billion US dollars (approximately 200.782 billion yuan). In addition to consolidating its position as market leader through revenue growth from its recent new model releases, OpenAI's main motivation for actively raising funds is to lock up market capital that might otherwise flow into Anthropic's IPO.
For OpenAI, a massive capital injection is crucial. Investors familiar with its operations point out that the company needs an enormous amount of capital to support its heavy spending on infrastructure; on the other hand, if fluctuations in future capital-market conditions force a delay of its planned 2027 listing, ample cash flow would also provide a strong cushion for the company's balance sheet.
However, the flood of large funding requests emerging in a short period has also posed challenges for investment institutions. Faced with two AI unicorns with extremely complex business structures and locked in fierce rivalry with each other, investors must complete their assessments and make capital allocation decisions within just a few weeks or even days. This capital contest over the AI top-tier ecosystem is hitting the accelerator at full throttle.