It is revealed that OpenAI is pushing for an urgent 200 billion yuan financing to compete for major investors with Anthropic.

Zhidx October 20 news, according to Reuters reports, OpenAI is accelerating a financing round of approximately 300 billion USD (equivalent to about 2.016 trillion RMB), targeting a valuation of over 1.4 trillion USD (equivalent to about 9.41 trillion RMB), attempting to lock in investors ahead of Anthropic's expected mid-November IPO. Two people familiar with the matter stated that SoftBank Group, Abu Dhabi's MGX and other existing investors are in talks to participate in this financing round.

This is no ordinary financing. The timetable is exceptionally tight, the target valuation is staggeringly high, and what it is competing for is the capital from the exact same group of backers.

01.

Why the head start: targeting the same group of backers

The party that secures funding first takes the initiative

OpenAI and Anthropic, two leading AI labs, are vying for the same pool of investors. OpenAI held talks with multi-strategy funds and sovereign wealth funds last week, while Anthropic also hosted its own investor day events during the same period. Sources familiar with the matter said OpenAI hopes to complete the financing before Anthropic's financial disclosures give investors a more comprehensive understanding of its business, to avoid direct comparison.

"OpenAI may want to set its own valuation without having to worry about comparable companies," said Edward Best, co-head of the Capital Markets practice at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, an international law firm covering more than 45 practice areas with capital markets as one of its strengths. He is not involved in the transaction and is only making hypothetical comments. "This is truly a two-horse listing race."

Some investors view OpenAI's push to advance financing as an effort to lock in capital that would otherwise have flowed more heavily into Anthropic's IPO. In other words, the party that completes financing first can lock in a portion of the funds that might otherwise go to its rival in advance.

02.

Revenue race: $500 billion vs $650 billion

But the growth narratives differ

OpenAI emphasized to investors that growth has accelerated after the release of GPT-6 Astra, with annualized revenue reaching $500 billion (equivalent to about 3.36 trillion RMB), and it is expected to rise to $700 billion (equivalent to about 4.704 trillion RMB) by the end of the year. The company has also cut prices for low-cost models, stating that this has driven usage growth, and told investors that further price cuts are possible.

For Anthropic, according to previous Reuters reports, its annualized revenue reached approximately $650 billion (equivalent to about 4.368 trillion RMB) in July. The company told investors that revenue in the third quarter jumped to $168 billion from $116 billion in the second quarter, but the month-on-month slowdown in growth has raised investors' concerns about its valuation.

There are also discrepancies in the revenue recognition methods of the two companies. OpenAI recognizes revenue on a net basis, that is, deducting partner shares in advance; it once accused Anthropic of recognizing revenue in full based on third-party cloud vendor contracts, exaggerating its revenue scale. Anthropic previously told Reuters that it follows established accounting practices.

In other words, Anthropic believes that the revenue recognition method it adopts conforms to the commonly accepted accounting practices in the industry, and is not deliberately whitewashing performance. But "established practice" itself is not equal to "mandatory by regulation", which is exactly the root cause that OpenAI has been clinging to, leading to the discrepancy between the two sides on the revenue caliber.

Behind the numbers are two different growth narratives: OpenAI is talking about "acceleration", while Anthropic is facing "slowing growth". At the critical moment of IPO pricing, how this narrative is presented directly affects the valuation investors are willing to give.

03.

Market headwinds: IPO window narrows

AI stocks are under pressure

OpenAI's eagerness to raise financing also has a more realistic background: the IPO market is cooling down.

According to Reuters reports last week, after Anthropic's third-quarter performance fell short of expectations, some existing and potential investors argued that its listing valuation should be close to $1.5 trillion (equivalent to about 10.08 trillion RMB), rather than the $2 trillion (equivalent to about 13.44 trillion RMB) the company expected. This reassessment took place amid market volatility since September: fluctuating oil prices, rising bond yields, and concerns about AI security are suppressing investors' interest in tech stocks.

The center of the latest concerns is cloud service provider CoreWeave, whose share price and bonds plummeted last week, as investors are scrutinizing its nearly $500 billion in borrowings used for rapid expansion. This uncertainty has disrupted the originally busy autumn IPO window: Blackstone-backed AirTrunk REIT, NVIDIA-backed Firmus, and SoftBank-backed SB Energy have all withdrawn or suspended their listing plans. Nuclear services firm Holtec withdrew its U.S. listing last month, citing a "Perfect Storm" triggered mainly by uncertainty over data center demand, referring to the overlapping of multiple pressures including data center demand uncertainty, market volatility, and AI stock corrections that led to the closure of the listing window.

The constituents of the PHLX Semiconductor Index, regarded as a bellwether for AI-related semiconductor demand, have lost $1.6 trillion in market value in less than two weeks, with AI infrastructure companies under particular pressure.

For OpenAI, if the IPO market further deteriorates and delays its planned 2027 listing, this round of private financing is the reserve ammunition prepared in advance. Sources familiar with the matter said OpenAI also needs funds to fulfill its huge infrastructure commitments and strengthen its balance sheet.

04.

Epilogue: Behind the valuation race

Is capital's scrutiny of AI revenue quality

The core logic of OpenAI's this financing round is not a lack of money, but to race against time. Locking in capital before Anthropic's IPO can not only avoid direct comparison of the two companies' financial data by investors, but also leave a private placement fallback for itself when the IPO market volatility intensifies.

The $1.4 trillion valuation target is betting on whether the revenue acceleration brought by GPT-6 Astra can be sustained; while the reality of Anthropic's quarterly revenue jump but slowing growth precisely shows that this race is far from over. Both companies are sprinting towards the trillion-dollar valuation, but the market is examining the debt cost, profit margin and revenue quality of AI infrastructure with a more cautious eye.

Who goes public first and who locks in capital first may determine who holds the right to speak in the next stage. The $300 billion that OpenAI grabs in advance buys not only time, but also the initiative before the market turns.

Source: Reuters

This article is from the WeChat official account "Zhidx", Author: Li Zi, Editor: Yunpeng, published with authorization from 36Kr.