OpenAI's New Funding Commitments Reach $11 Billion, Less Than Half Its $30 Billion Target
The Wall Street Journal and others report that OpenAI has secured roughly $11 billion in commitments for its new round. The original target was $30 billion. Other reports say the company has lowered both its fundraising goal and the valuation it is seeking.
OpenAI has secured roughly $11 billion in investment commitments for its new funding round, according to reports published on October 30 and 31 by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and other outlets. The target OpenAI initially put forward was $30 billion, which means the figure falls short of even half the goal.
What exactly is $11 billion in “commitments”?
A commitment is the amount an investor has pledged to put in. That is not the same as money already sitting in OpenAI’s accounts. Once the round closes, the final figure could end up different.
There are also reports that OpenAI lowered the fundraising target itself. According to a Financial Times (FT) report relayed by Reuters, the company trimmed its goal from $30 billion to about $20 billion. The $11 billion in commitments reported by WSJ and others falls short of even that reduced target.
The FT also reported that the valuation OpenAI has been seeking during the fundraising process has come down, from an initial $1.4 trillion to $1.25 trillion. A valuation is not money coming in from investors; it is the price tag placed on the company as a whole. It also serves as the reference point a company puts on the table when negotiating with investors.
Compared with the round in March
The most recent total of investment commitments OpenAI officially announced was $122 billion. The company said it closed that round on March 31, and that its post-investment valuation stood at $852 billion. The $11 billion reported now is a separate figure, tied to the new round currently underway.
Rival Anthropic also raised a large sum this year. Anthropic said it secured $30 billion in February, at a post-investment valuation of $380 billion. In other words, the amount Anthropic actually raised is on par with the amount OpenAI set as its target this time around.
What it means for people who use ChatGPT
These reports are not about a new ChatGPT feature; they concern the finances of the company that operates it. The numbers tell you nothing about where pricing or terms of service are headed. For questions Korean users tend to have in particular, such as which services are available domestically, the state of Korean-language support, and pricing, the answers will have to come from separate company announcements.
Three things are worth watching from here: the final commitment total for the new round, how much investors actually pay in, and the valuation that is ultimately settled on. OpenAI has also yet to explain why it lowered its target.