OpenAI’s fundraising has moved from a pitch to a nearly finished deal, and the price came down on the way. CNBC’s reporters, Kate Rooney and Ashley Capoot, rely on people familiar with the deal. They requested anonymity since the terms are confidential, and they say OpenAI is raising as much as $30 billion on a $1.25 trillion valuation, with UAE investors in front and Coatue beside them.

On 6 October we covered Bloomberg’s account of the same raise: a round of at least $30 billion, pitched at a $1.4 trillion pre-money valuation, with no lead investor settled. Three things have changed. The round is close to signing, a lead group now exists, and the number is $150 billion lower, a cut of roughly 11 percent (our arithmetic).

The pre-money and post-money question has a clean answer this time. CNBC’s sources say the $1.25 trillion does not include the new capital, which makes it a pre-money figure on the same basis as Bloomberg’s, so the two numbers compare directly. CNBC gives no post-money figure. Adding the full $30 billion would produce $1.28 trillion by our calculation, but CNBC says the final size is still being determined, so that is a ceiling and not a forecast.

Nothing is signed. According to CNBC’s sources, OpenAI said to investors on Thursday it hopes to have signed papers before next week closes. Note the wording on size too: Bloomberg described a round of at least $30 billion, while CNBC says up to $30 billion.

CNBC names the UAE group and Coatue but no individual Emirati fund. Bloomberg had listed MGX, BlackRock, Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and the University of California as possible participants. CNBC does not mention them, and that silence is not evidence that any of them left.

The UAE role may reach past the cheque. One person told CNBC that OpenAI is also negotiating a commercial agreement for extra computing capacity supplied from the UAE. In February the company gave investors a goal of about $600 billion in total compute spending by 2030, so a lead investor that can also supply capacity solves two problems at once.

CNBC describes the financing as an “opportunistic” bridge toward a possible IPO. In June, OpenAI submitted its prospectus to the US securities regulator, the SEC, without making it public. Finance chief Sarah Friar said in August, to staff, that the company “will be a public company in 2027.” A month later, chief executive Sam Altman said “right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public.” The company has not said when it will list.

The rival comparison sharpens the number. Anthropic raised $65 billion in a May round that valued it at $965 billion. CNBC adds that Anthropic is reportedly aiming for a listing valuation of $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion. At $1.25 trillion before new money, OpenAI would sit about $285 billion above Anthropic’s last private mark, nearly 30 percent more, though the two valuations were struck five months apart.

If signatures arrive on schedule, $1.25 trillion becomes the private price any 2027 listing has to beat, and it already sits $150 billion below what OpenAI first asked.

Reported by CNBC (Kate Rooney and Ashley Capoot) on 22 October 2026, compared with Bloomberg’s report of 5 October 2026.