Investors Reportedly Offered OpenAI a New Funding Round After Postponed IPO. Valuation Could Top $1 Trillion.

OpenAI investors have offered the company a new funding round, according to a new report.

CNBC detailed that the round could value the company at $1.2 trillion and would be a way for company employees to sell their stock. However, No formal discussions are underway.

The company had raised $122 billion at a $852 billion valuation in March. It had began taking steps toward an IPO this year, but CEO Sam Altman said the move won't take place this year as the company has too much work ahead on artificial intelligence safety and alignment.

Altman confirmed the timing in an exclusive interview with Fortune earlier this week, calling the current environment an "ill-advised moment" for an IPO and saying OpenAI did not feel pressure to enter the public markets. Asked whether a 2026 listing was off the table, he replied: "I would say not 2026. Yeah, we got a lot of stuff to do."

Altman said OpenAI would go public when the business itself was ready and when the broader circumstances surrounding increasingly powerful AI technology made the timing appropriate.

Remaining private also gives OpenAI greater latitude to make decisions that might conflict with investors' immediate financial interests, an issue Altman specifically addressed when discussing the company's unusual corporate structure.

Discussions about AI safety have dominated the public conversation over the past days, especially as top industry leaders echoed calls to pace the development of frontier models over concerns about the possibility that the technology could go rogue.

In this context, OpenAI policy chief Lehane told Bloomberg News that the company is working with Anthropic and Alphabet on AI Safety.

He went on to say that the companies have been in talks for several weeks and doesn't believe they need an antitrust waiver to coordinate. "It's better to try to work together to prioritize safety," he said.

The remarks follow a report claiming that the companies were also discussing the creation of a new industry-wide AI safety body that could establish common standards for the world's most powerful artificial intelligence systems.

The private discussions among the three companies have been underway as their leaders publicly call for slowing the development of increasingly capable AI, The Information detailed.

The potential organization could become a central mechanism for setting safety standards across companies developing frontier AI. It could also provide a framework that allows competitors to coordinate on safety without forcing individual companies to slow down while rivals continue racing ahead.