OpenAI Funding Rounds and Valuation History: 2019 to 2026

OpenAI’s last confirmed valuation is still $852 billion post-money, set when it closed a $122 billion round on March 31, 2026, and reaffirmed (not stepped up) by a company-funded employee tender in August 2026. A new round of about $30 billion at roughly $1.4 trillion was still only in talks as of October 19–22, 2026—not closed.

The arithmetic of the 2026 round is the cleanest way to read the source fight. OpenAI’s own February 27 blog set a $730 billion pre-money on $110 billion of commitments, which is an $840 billion post-money if that amount closed. When the round closed at $122 billion, post-money became $852 billion ($730B + $122B). The New York Times’s March 31 story still described the company as valued at $730 billion—that figure is the February pre-money, not the closing mark.

Chronological table

Figures are USD. “Confirmed” means a company, investor filing, or named primary announcement. “Reported” means press citing people familiar with the deal, often after the company declined to comment. Tender offers do not raise primary capital for the company unless noted.

Date	Event	Amount	Lead / buyers	Pre-money	Post-money / mark	How firm
Jul 22, 2019	Strategic investment (OpenAI LP)	$1B commitment, callable over years, not a lump sum	Microsoft	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	Amount confirmed by Microsoft and OpenAI. Parties declined to give terms or a valuation.
~Mar 2021	Follow-on Microsoft investment	~$2B (quiet; not announced at the time)	Microsoft	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	Reported, later supported by Fortune’s reading of deal documents and by court filings in the Musk litigation. No public valuation.
Jan 23, 2023	Extended Microsoft partnership	~$10B over multiple years (companies said only “multiyear, multibillion-dollar”)	Microsoft	Not stated	~$29B (reported target around the talks)	Amount reported (Bloomberg, NYT, person familiar). $29B reported via Semafor and later Fortune documents. Much of the value was Azure compute, not all cash.
Apr 28, 2023	Employee / insider share sale (tender)	Just over $300M	Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, K2 Global; Founders Fund also reported; some accounts add Tiger Global	Not separately stated	$27–29B	Reported (TechCrunch documents; Reuters pickup). Separate from the Microsoft deal. OpenAI declined comment.
Feb 16, 2024	Employee tender	Amount not cleanly disclosed in primary coverage	Thrive Capital (lead)	Not stated	$80B or more (NYT) vs $86B (Bloomberg)	Reported. Both outlets said OpenAI and Thrive declined comment. Use $80–86B, not a single number.
Oct 2, 2024	Primary round (structured in part as convertible notes / interests)	$6.6B	Thrive lead (~$1.2–1.3B, with an option for more). Microsoft ~$750M to just under $1B. Nvidia ~$100M. SoftBank ~$500M. Also Khosla, Altimeter, Fidelity, MGX	~$150B+ (Bloomberg: more than $150B pre-money)	$157B	Round size and $157B valuation widely reported and treated as closed; OpenAI described the raise. Investor-by-investor splits are reported and disagree at the margin (Thrive $1.2B vs $1.25B vs $1.3B; Microsoft $750M vs “just under $1B”).
Nov 2024 (employees had until Dec 24 to elect)	Employee tender to SoftBank	Up to ~$1.5B	SoftBank Vision Fund 2	n/a (priced off the last round)	Same mark as Oct 2024 (~$157B; CNBC: $210/unit)	Reported (CNBC first; Reuters, WSJ, FT). FT said ~$150B, slightly looser than the $157B headline. Company and SoftBank declined comment.
Mar 31, 2025 (announced; first close planned mid-April)	Primary round, tranche structure	Up to $40B ($10B near-term; up to $30B later, cut if the for-profit conversion slipped)	SoftBank lead (effective up to $30B after syndicating $10B). Also Microsoft, Coatue, Altimeter, Thrive	$260B (SoftBank’s own announcement)	$300B including new money	Confirmed by OpenAI and by SoftBank’s April 1, 2025 filing for the pre-money, cap, and contingency. Syndicate names are reported.
Oct 2, 2025	Employee secondary sale	~$6.6B sold (authorization was ~$10.3B; only about two-thirds sold)	Thrive, SoftBank, Dragoneer, MGX, T. Rowe Price	n/a	$500B	Reported (Reuters, Bloomberg, NYT, CNBC). OpenAI did not confirm. Buyers largely declined comment. This is the mark Microsoft’s later 27% stake was discussed against.
Dec 11, 2025	Strategic equity investment	$1B, plus warrants	Disney	Not a new priced round	No new mark; described against the existing $500B secondary	Amount confirmed by Disney and OpenAI. Not a valuation reset.
Feb 27, 2026	Round announced, still open	$110B committed (Amazon up to $50B, of which $15B upfront and $35B milestone- or IPO/AGI-contingent; Nvidia $30B; SoftBank $30B)	Amazon, Nvidia, SoftBank anchors	$730B (OpenAI blog)	$840B if $110B counted in (Reuters, Axios, Guardian)	Pre-money and $110B confirmed by OpenAI. Post-money of $840B is arithmetic plus contemporaneous reporting, not a separate company sentence. Nikkei and some headlines used $730B as “the valuation,” which is the pre-money.
Mar 31, 2026	Same round closed, upsized	$122B committed	Anchors unchanged. SoftBank co-led with a16z, D.E. Shaw Ventures, MGX, TPG, and T. Rowe Price accounts. Microsoft participated (size undisclosed). $3B+ from individuals via bank channels	$730B (implied: 852 − 122)	$852B	Confirmed by OpenAI’s blog and @OpenAI post. CNBC, WSJ, Guardian, Bloomberg match $852B. NYT said $730B on the close day — that conflicts with the company and with the other wires.
Aug 10, 2026	Employee tender / buyback	~$7B	OpenAI itself (no new outside buyers)	n/a	$852B, flat	Reported (Bloomberg first; TechCrunch, CNBC follow-ons). OpenAI declined comment. First major tender that did not set a higher price.
Sep 29–Oct 19, 2026	New primary round in talks	About $30B	SoftBank, MGX, and other existing backers in talks; meetings with long-only and sovereign funds	Bloomberg (Sep 29): ~$1.4T not including the new money. Reuters (Oct 19): over $1.4T	Not set	Reported only. Not closed as of Oct 22, 2026. OpenAI and SoftBank declined comment to Reuters.

Related but not equity rounds: a roughly $4 billion credit facility around the October 2024 raise, later described by OpenAI in March 2026 as expanded to about $4.7 billion. That is debt capacity, not a valuation event.

Where the sources actually disagree

The fights are concentrated in a few cells, not spread evenly across the history.

• February 2024 tender. The New York Times said “$80 billion or more.” Bloomberg said $86 billion. Later round write-ups (WSJ, October 2024) used $86 billion as the prior mark. Treat it as a range.
• October 2024 check sizes. Everyone agrees on $6.6 billion and $157 billion. Thrive’s check is $1.2B, $1.25B, or $1.3B depending on the outlet; Microsoft is ~$750 million (Bloomberg) or just under $1 billion (WSJ). SoftBank ~$500 million and Nvidia ~$100 million come from people familiar, not a cap table.
• October 2024 pre vs post. $157 billion is the headline valuation. Bloomberg also said the deal valued the company at more than $150 billion before the new money, which is consistent with $157 billion post-money on a $6.6 billion raise.
• November 2024 tender price. CNBC tied the unit price to the last round ($210). The FT summarized the prior round as a $150 billion valuation. That is a rounding/pre-money slip, not a second price.
• March 2025. SoftBank’s own release is the cleanest primary: $260 billion pre-money, up to $40 billion, second tranche contingent on the recapitalization. OpenAI, Reuters, Bloomberg, and the FT all used $300 billion including the new money. “$40 billion” is a cap, not cash that all arrived on March 31.
• February–March 2026. This is the important one. OpenAI: $730 billion pre-money on February 27, then $852 billion post-money on $122 billion on March 31. Reuters/Axios/Guardian translated the February announcement into an $840 billion valuation including $110 billion. The New York Times on close day still wrote $730 billion. $730 + $122 = $852, so the Times figure is the pre-money carried forward, not a rival post-money.
• Amazon’s $50 billion is a commitment, not fully funded cash. OpenAI and Reuters: $15 billion first, $35 billion later if conditions are met (IPO or AGI, in Bloomberg’s account).
• October 2026 talks. Bloomberg on September 29: at least $30 billion at about $1.4 trillion excluding the new money. Reuters on October 19: about $30 billion at over $1.4 trillion, accelerated ahead of Anthropic’s expected mid-November IPO. Neither number is a closed round.

What is the latest mark?

Primary and company-confirmed: $852 billion post-money on March 31, 2026, on $122 billion of committed capital. OpenAI’s blog and its own post are the controlling sources. That implies a $730 billion pre-money, unchanged from the February announcement.

Last secondary print that matches a closed transaction: the August 10, 2026 employee tender, about $7 billion, priced flat at $852 billion, funded by OpenAI rather than by new investors. Bloomberg reported it; the company declined to comment. Flat tenders confirm a mark; they do not create a new one.

Not a valuation: the October 2026 fundraising talks. Until a round closes, “over $1.4 trillion” is a target described by people familiar with the matter, not a mark. Some secondary-data vendors (for example AG Dillon’s October 12, 2026 note) have already booked a $1.4 trillion “last primary” dated September 2026. That treats unsigned talks as a closed round. It should not be used as a confirmed valuation.

Secondary-market quotes, as of mid-to-late October 2026, do not agree with each other:

• Stock Analysis, citing Clarity (formerly Hiive), still lists the funding valuation at $852 billion (March 31, 2026) and an implied valuation of about $987 billion, with a last quoted price of $838.50 as of October 21, 2026.
• DefiLlama’s pre-IPO page, updated October 21, 2026, showed an estimated $1.11 trillion as of October 20, while still recording the last round at $852 billion.
• PrivateMarketView listed a secondary-based mark around $1.16–1.2 trillion (about $955 a share) as of October 2026.

Those marketplace marks are estimates from thin private trading, not transactions OpenAI has acknowledged. The spread—from the last closed print of $852 billion, through roughly $1.0–1.2 trillion in secondary estimates, up to a reported $1.4 trillion fundraising target—is the actual state of the mark as of October 22, 2026.

How to read the sequence if you are underwriting the next round

OpenAI’s valuation has been set by two different mechanisms, and they have not always moved together. From 2023 through October 2025, employee tenders did the repricing: about $29 billion (April 2023), $80–86 billion (February 2024), $157 billion was then locked by a primary round, $500 billion by the October 2025 secondary. The March 2026 primary jumped the mark to $852 billion; the August 2026 tender refused to raise it, and OpenAI paid for the liquidity itself. That is a different signal from 2024–25, when outside buyers (Thrive, then SoftBank, then a consortium) were willing to set a higher price to get stock.

The other structural point: several of the largest “investments” are commitments with conditions, not cash on the balance sheet. Microsoft’s 2019 billion was a capital commitment called over time. The 2023 Microsoft deal was multi-year and partly compute. SoftBank’s 2025 second tranche depended on the recapitalization. Amazon’s 2026 $35 billion depends on milestones. A headline raise of $122 billion is not the same object as $122 billion of unrestricted cash.

---

Recent Findings Supplement (October 2026)

OpenAI’s most recent confirmed primary round closed March 31, 2026, at a post-money valuation of $852 billion with $122 billion in committed capital. This round, anchored by Amazon (up to $50 billion), NVIDIA, and SoftBank alongside Microsoft and others, remains the last fully executed primary financing as of October 22, 2026.[1][2]

• OpenAI’s own announcement confirmed the $122 billion committed amount and $852 billion post-money valuation; major participants included Amazon, NVIDIA, SoftBank (co-lead), a16z, and others, plus over $3 billion via bank channels for individuals.[1]
• This built on prior rounds but marked a sharp step-up; committed capital typically arrives in tranches rather than immediate cash.[3]

This sets the baseline valuation for all subsequent liquidity and reported talks; any new primary round must clear or exceed this mark to attract capital amid rising infrastructure costs and IPO scrutiny.

SoftBank completed its final $10 billion tranche on October 1, 2026, bringing its total OpenAI investment to $64.6 billion for roughly 13% ownership. This followed the March round and was confirmed directly by SoftBank.[4]

• The tranche was part of SoftBank’s larger commitment in the $122 billion round; the firm raised bonds earlier to fund it.[4]

This demonstrates continued deep-pocketed backing from existing strategic investors even as new rounds are discussed, providing a signal of confidence in execution.

In August 2026, OpenAI completed a self-funded ~$7 billion employee tender offer at the unchanged $852 billion valuation, allowing current and former employees to sell shares directly to the company rather than outside investors. Bloomberg first reported the details, with confirmation across TechCrunch, CNBC, and others.[5][5]

• This differed from prior tenders (e.g., the October 2025 $6.6 billion round at ~$500 billion, which involved outside buyers); the company used its own cash to keep the cap table clean ahead of a potential IPO.[6]
• Earlier reporting referenced caps allowing some employees to sell up to $30 million each in prior liquidity events.[7]

This provides employee liquidity without diluting ownership or introducing new shareholders, a key pre-IPO tactic that preserves optionality while valuations remain high.

As of mid-to-late October 2026, OpenAI is in accelerated talks for a new ~$30 billion primary round targeting a valuation above $1.4 trillion, driven by competition with Anthropic’s expected mid-November IPO and revenue momentum. Reuters (Oct 19) and Bloomberg (late September updates) reported the details from sources; the round is not yet confirmed or closed.[2][8]

• SoftBank, MGX, and other existing backers are in talks; OpenAI met long-only funds and sovereign wealth funds recently.[9]
• Pitch includes September annualized revenue of ~$50 billion (down from some prior signals) with expectations of $70 billion by year-end, aided by GPT-6 Astra and enterprise growth.[10][11]
• Earlier reports mentioned possible $1.2 trillion targets; recent coverage converged on $1.4 trillion+ (pre- or post-money details vary slightly across sources, with one noting “not including the money raised”).[8][12]

Discrepancies center on exact valuation framing and timing; all figures remain reported rather than confirmed, with the round positioned as a bridge to a potential 2027 IPO amid market volatility.[3]

Secondary-market pricing as of October 21, 2026, showed shares at $838.50 (via Clarity platform), implying a valuation around $987 billion—above the March $852 billion mark but below the reported $1.4 trillion target.[13]

For competitors or new entrants, the combination of massive confirmed capital, self-funded liquidity tools, and aggressive reported valuation targets raises the bar for matching infrastructure spend and talent retention; overlapping investor pools with Anthropic intensify timing pressure on any IPO or raise. Recent revenue transparency and model launches (e.g., GPT-6 Astra) are being used to justify step-ups, while self-funded tenders signal balance-sheet strength but also highlight the need for sustained cash generation ahead of public markets.