OpenAI mulls funding round at $1.2 trillion valuation ahead of IPO, FT reports

JUST IN: OpenAI is reportedly weighing a new funding round at a $1.2 trillion valuation ahead of a planned IPO, according to the FT.

OpenAI wants a price tag of one point two trillion dollars.

That's the number the Financial Times says the company is weighing for a new funding round, one last private cheque before it goes public. Sam Altman's outfit would be valued higher than almost every company on Earth, before it ever prints a share price. For context, that's roughly Google territory a few years ago, for a firm that still burns cash like a rocket burns fuel.

And that's the tension. The revenue is real and growing fast, but so are the compute bills, and every fresh round at a fatter number raises the bar an IPO has to clear. Whoever writes this cheque isn't buying today's OpenAI, they're buying the version that has to grow into a trillion-dollar suit.

The wildest part is nobody on Wall Street will even call it crazy out loud. That's where we are.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.