OpenAI Slashes Fundraising Target by $10 Billion Amid AI Stock Selloff

OpenAI has sharply scaled back its latest fundraising round, trimming its target by $10 billion to roughly $20 billion and revising its desired valuation down to $1.25 trillion, the Financial Times reported Friday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The ChatGPT maker set a Friday deadline for investors to commit, but the first close is expected to fall short of $20 billion after some investors reduced their allocations. A consortium of UAE investors that includes state-backed technology fund MGX is expected to be the largest participant in the round; as part of the arrangement, OpenAI would gain the option to lease newly developed computing capacity in the region. Venture capital firms including Founders Fund, Coatue, Sequoia Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz are also expected to take part. Wealthy individuals will have the option to invest in a subsequent retail offering at the $1.25 trillion valuation. The cutback comes amid a broader rout in technology stocks fuelled by investor concern over heavy AI spending — the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 2.9% on Friday and sits 7.8% below its all-time closing high reached on October 6. OpenAI, which is targeting a public listing in 2027, has been eager to close the round partly to get ahead of rival Anthropic's imminent listing, as the two companies draw from a similar investor base.