Investors open talks that value OpenAI 20% above the IPO it postponed

A $1.2 trillion target against the $852 billion valuation of March is a 40.8% markup in roughly six months ^[1][2][1]. The comparison I find more useful runs against the public market: OpenAI was prepared to list this year at $1 trillion, so the private talks price it 20% above the offering it postponed ^[5][2].

March's round took in $122 billion, or 14.3% of the valuation it was raised at ^[2][3]. That is a lot of cash to have absorbed six months before asking for more. The only revenue figure in the report is advertising, where OpenAI said last month it was on pace for $1 billion annualized ^[9]; total revenue is not disclosed. Against $1.2 trillion, that line is paid 1,200 times over ^[4].

Ads began as a February test for some U.S. ChatGPT users, labeled brand boxes beneath AI-generated answers, and seven months later they run in more than 50 countries ^[10]. Dan Salmon, an analyst at New Street Research, said the pace of the rollout was "impressive and unprecedented" ^[11]. Altman had called the combination of advertising and artificial intelligence "uniquely unsettling" and then relented under monetization pressure ^[12]. The report attributes the reversal to soaring computing costs and the need to keep ChatGPT's free tier running ^[13]. Former Meta employees have been hired to build the business out ^[14].

The critique on the other side is that the safety talk is competitive positioning ^[19]. Aidan Gomez, chief executive of Cohere, wrote in a commentary on the 13th that market-dominant Silicon Valley AI firms are demanding the authority to rewrite the rules of competition in their own favor. He called it "a wolf in sheep's clothing" and "a cartel by another name" ^[15][16]. Yahoo Finance said Amodei and Altman had spent two years packaging the technology as a money-printing machine, and that the lack of safeguards around AI was entirely their responsibility ^[17].

In my view the caution and the raise are consistent. Postponing the listing removes the daily public price. A private round hands existing holders a 40.8% higher mark, set by a group of buyers who chose to be there, and Altman said on the 12th that a listing before 2027 was unlikely ^[6][1]. Two other readings fit the same facts. Demand may be exactly what it looks like, since the sources told the FT that the talks began at the investors' suggestion ^[4]. Or nothing closes at this number: the discussions are early and their timing depends on when OpenAI goes public ^[3].

Whether $1.2 trillion becomes the figure other AI investors underwrite against is a separate question, and the evidence here is one company's early-stage conversations. If the round goes ahead, it would be the first time OpenAI is valued above $1 trillion ^[18].