OpenAI CFO: $120B funding raise in sight as IPO reports swirl

Dive Brief:

OpenAI is on track to raise $120 billion in a funding round backed by a broad mix of investors, CFO Sarah Friar said Tuesday in a CNBC interview.
The effort has expanded to include investors such as T. Rowe Price, D.E. Shaw Ventures, TPG, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX, Friar told CNBC’s Jim Cramer, who called it “the most successful fundraising round in history.” The current amount in the round is up $10 billion from the $110 billion announced in February.
“People really believed in this AI revolution, and they wanted to put their money to work behind it,” Friar said.

Dive Insight:

The fundraising push comes amid reports that OpenAI is laying the groundwork to go public. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that the company was preparing to launch an initial public offering by late 2026.

In a February blog post, OpenAI announced $110 billion in new funding at a $730 billion pre-money valuation, including commitments of $30 billion each from SoftBank and NVIDIA, and $50 billion from Amazon. The company said it also signed a strategic partnership with Amazon and secured “next-generation inference compute” with NVIDIA.

“These partnerships expand our global reach, deepen our infrastructure, and strengthen our balance sheet so we can bring frontier AI to more people, more businesses, and more communities worldwide,” the company said.

In a LinkedIn post following the Tuesday interview, Friar said OpenAI plans to close the latest funding round “shortly.”

Meanwhile, the AI juggernaut has also been expanding its finance team. In a recent LinkedIn post, Friar announced the addition of Ajmere Dale as chief accounting officer and Cynthia Gaylor as business finance officer. “The finance organization is rolling right now. We are building, shipping, and operating at immense scale, and doing it with rigor, pace, and a strong sense of ownership,” she said.

OpenAI is projecting a rise in enterprise customers this year, according to Friar. Currently, the company leans on consumers for about 60% of its revenue, with 40% coming from enterprises. “I think by the end of this year, we'll be more 50-50,” Friar told Cramer.