OpenAI Secures $122 Billion at $852 Billion Valuation; Retail Investors Put In $3 Billion

OpenAI says the infusion will fund massive compute and data center expansion as it prepares for a likely public listing and widens its shareholder base.

OpenAI closed what it called its biggest financing yet, raising $122 billion at an $852 billion valuation in a deal that included roughly $3 billion placed by individual investors through bank channels. The round was co-led by SoftBank with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, D.E. Shaw Ventures, MGX, TPG and T. Rowe Price, and drew commitments from Amazon, Nvidia and Microsoft.

The company also revealed plans to be included in a number of ARK Invest-managed exchange-traded funds, a move that will give more retail investors exposure to the privately held firm ahead of an anticipated IPO. In parallel, OpenAI said it expanded a revolving credit line to about $4.7 billion, backed by several global banks; the facility was reported as undrawn, suggesting the firm is adding optionality as it ramps capital spending rather than filling an immediate cash gap.

In its investor statement, OpenAI supplied fresh operating figures: it said revenue runs at about $2 billion a month, it serves more than 900 million weekly active consumer accounts and counts north of 50 million paid subscribers. Search activity on its platforms, the company said, is roughly three times what it was a year ago. An ad test has already produced an annualized run rate above $100 million inside roughly six weeks. On the enterprise side, business customers now make up about two-fifths of revenue, up from roughly one-third last year, and the company expects business and consumer lines to be on par by the end of 2026. OpenAI attributed much of its recent commercial momentum to its latest model, GPT-5.4, which it said is accelerating automated workstreams.

“This deal gives the company both a cushion for big-ticket infrastructure and leverage when it talks to public investors,” said Maria Lopez, a technology strategist who follows AI markets. A hypothetical company executive quoted in the fundraising release framed the round as a step to broaden ownership and improve its positioning for life as a listed company.

Beyond capital, the package appears aimed at shaping market expectations as much as funding operations. By opening private shares to more retail holders and tying itself to well-known funds, OpenAI is arranging a narrative for its market debut while securing resources to compete on chips, data centers and talent. That strategy, observers say, also raises the stakes for regulators and rivals watching how the company translates scale into revenue and control of the primary consumer interface for AI services.