In what Reuters’ anonymously-sourced report assesses as an “unusually fast” fundraising strategy, OpenAI is apparently looking to past investors like SoftBank and Abu Dhabi’s MGX to inject it with fresh capital in order to climb to a potential valuation of $1.4 trillion or more.

Anthropic has led OpenAI in valuation quite authoritatively since May of this year. Late last month, analysts were forecasting a $2 trillion IPO for Anthropic in November, but money-knowers have speculated more recently that its market cap after its IPO could fall short of that by a quarter, at $1.5 trillion.

In other words, OpenAI quickly getting itself valued at $1.4 trillion, followed by an exceptionally disappointing IPO for Anthropic could mean the rivals are once again racing neck-and-neck. Reuters writes that its sources say this funding round is “expected to move faster than is typical for an offering of its size.”

Though valuation isn’t everything, and OpenAI apparently also just needs the cash—about $30 billion, Reuters says—to keep building infrastructure.

Last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said his company’s IPO would not happen in 2026, and a couple weeks later he made the timeline even fuzzier by saying the company wouldn’t go public until its AI models stop going rogue. Now is a somewhat jittery time for finance and AI, with investors becoming wary of debt-riddled AI companies.

What good is investing in offense if you’ve hobbled your own defense?

It questioned the ethics of what it was doing—before proceeding to do it.

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