OpenAI reportedly seeks $30B at $1.25T valuation before IPO

OpenAI is working on a new $30 billion funding round at a valuation of about $1.25 trillion, ahead of a planned IPO. If completed, it would make OpenAI the most highly valued private company ever.

Why it matters: A round at this scale signals how much capital frontier labs need for compute, and it sets a pricing benchmark for Anthropic and others heading toward public markets. Combined with reports of Anthropic's compute-financing talks and distressed neocloud debt, it shows AI funding is concentrating in a few labs while weaker infrastructure players come under strain.