Anthropic has secured a $30 billion funding round at a $900 billion valuation, surpassing OpenAI's last reported $852 billion post-money valuation, according to the Financial Times. This development adds pressure on OpenAI as it navigates its path toward a potential initial public offering that could value the company as high as $1 trillion.
OpenAI closed a $122 billion funding round in March, which included a post-money valuation of $852 billion. The company also announced the formation of a new deployment company with $4 billion in initial backing, signaling its intent to scale its enterprise AI business. However, the latest valuation from Anthropic, a direct competitor, underscores the intensifying race for AI market dominance.
U.S. stock markets remain closed Sunday, with regular Nasdaq trading resuming Monday. Investors will have a full week to digest the latest AI financing news before markets open. While OpenAI is not publicly traded, its valuation is determined by private market investors during funding rounds. A public listing would open the company to a broader investor base.
OpenAI has taken steps to improve its financial transparency. The company struck a new agreement with Microsoft to cap revenue-sharing payments at $38 billion, as reported by The Information and Reuters. This cap could provide investors with clearer insight into OpenAI's future cash flows and profitability potential.
SoftBank, a major investor in OpenAI, reported cumulative gains of $45 billion from its stake in the company. The Japanese tech giant posted a net profit of 1.83 trillion yen ($11.6 billion) for the January-March quarter, bolstered by these gains. Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto indicated that using OpenAI assets as collateral for margin loans is "certainly possible," highlighting the financial flexibility the stake provides.
AI stocks continue to attract investor interest. Cerebras Systems, an AI chip maker with customers including OpenAI and Amazon, saw its stock surge 89% above its IPO price on Thursday. The offering raised $5.55 billion and valued Cerebras at $106.75 billion on a fully diluted basis. Nicholas Smith, senior research analyst at Renaissance Capital, noted the valuation was "quite high even out to 2028."
OpenAI faces several challenges as it considers an IPO. The company must address high compute costs, increasing competition from Anthropic and Alphabet's Gemini, and legal questions from Elon Musk's lawsuit regarding its for-profit transition. Court filings revealed that CEO Sam Altman holds over $2 billion in companies that have worked with OpenAI, though Altman has denied self-dealing accusations and stated he recused himself from related decisions.
Brian Mulberry, chief market strategist at Zacks Investment Management, warned that negative headlines could hinder OpenAI's ability to achieve its desired valuation in an IPO. The coming days may bring further developments on the legal and valuation fronts, with closing testimony in the Musk trial potentially wrapping up this week and jury deliberations possibly starting by May 18.
