OpenAI cuts its new funding target from $30B to $20B

OpenAI has lowered the funding target for its latest round, according to multiple news reports cited by TechCrunch on October 31, a sign that even the most visible company in AI is not immune to a cooling market.

Earlier reporting said OpenAI was raising $30 billion at a $1.4 trillion valuation, a figure later revised to $1.25 trillion, with the money meant to fund expansion ahead of a planned IPO.

The Financial Times reported on Friday that the target has since been cut to $20 billion, and that the first close is expected to come in below even that number. In practice, the cash actually wired at the first close may be well short of the headline goal.

The round is being led by a group of investors from the United Arab Emirates, and a later retail offering aimed at wealthy individuals could bring the total to the $20 billion mark. Other reporting put commitments secured so far at about $11 billion, with some large investors described as tepid.

TechCrunch said it has reached out to OpenAI for comment. No official confirmation of the figures has appeared, so the numbers remain press accounts rather than a company announcement.

Part of the difficulty is timing. Wall Street has grown wary of heavy AI infrastructure spending, triggering a broad selloff in tech stocks, and Anthropic's planned IPO could draw capital away from OpenAI's own raise.

Two things are worth watching: whether $20 billion becomes the new baseline or is an intermediate step, and how the UAE-led structure and the retail tranche are finally split. A lower first close would also say something about the pace of OpenAI's compute commitments.