OpenAI Closes $110 Billion Round at $730 Billion - The Largest Private Deal in History

It's done. OpenAI has closed the largest private funding round in history - $110 billion at a $730 billion pre-money valuation, with a post-money figure of roughly $840 billion. The deal, finalized today, is backed by three mega-investors: Amazon ($50 billion), NVIDIA ($30 billion), and SoftBank ($30 billion).

When we first reported on this round four days ago, the numbers were still in flux and the valuation was rumored at $850 billion. The final terms came in lower - but the scale is still staggering. OpenAI has now raised more money in a single round than most public companies are worth.

The Money Trail

Amazon's $35 Billion Catch

The headline number from Amazon is $50 billion, but the fine print matters. According to The Information, only $15 billion lands upfront. The remaining $35 billion is released only when OpenAI either goes public with an IPO or hits a major AGI milestone - with an independent expert panel required to verify any AGI claim. That's not a blank check. It is a structured bet with an exit ramp built in.

The strategic angle is just as significant. AWS is expanding its existing agreement with OpenAI from $38 billion to $100 billion over eight years. OpenAI commits to consuming roughly 2 gigawatts of AWS Trainium capacity, including next-generation Trainium4 chips arriving in 2027. In return, AWS becomes the exclusive third-party cloud distribution provider for OpenAI Frontier, the company's enterprise AI agent platform.

The NVIDIA Circularity

NVIDIA's $30 billion continues the pattern we flagged in our earlier coverage - much of the capital OpenAI raises from NVIDIA will flow directly back to buy NVIDIA chips. The Stargate data center project in Abilene, Texas runs on NVIDIA Blackwell and next-generation Rubin GPUs. Jensen Huang has been open about this: "I believe in OpenAI. They're one of the most consequential companies of our time." That belief comes with a very convenient revenue loop.

SoftBank Doubles Down

Masayoshi Son's $30 billion adds to the $40 billion SoftBank already committed in early 2025. That is $70 billion total from a single investor - a bet that makes the Vision Fund's WeWork disaster look like a rounding error in comparison.

The Microsoft Question

On the same day the round closed, Microsoft and OpenAI issued a joint statement insisting their partnership remains "strong and central." The statement clarifies that Azure remains the exclusive cloud provider for OpenAI's stateless APIs, that Microsoft's IP license and model access is unchanged, and that revenue-sharing arrangements continue.

Reading between the lines: the statement exists because the Amazon deal raised obvious questions. If AWS is now the exclusive third-party distribution channel for OpenAI Frontier, where does that leave Azure's competitive position? Microsoft collected $7.6 billion from OpenAI in the most recent quarter, so the financial relationship is real. But the strategic relationship just got more complicated.

The Numbers Behind the Valuation

The revenue trajectory is real. OpenAI tripled from roughly $6 billion ARR in 2024 to $20 billion in 2025, hitting its first $1 billion revenue month in July 2025. The company is targeting $46 billion in 2026 revenue and projects Nvidia-like levels of $100 billion by 2029.

But so are the losses. Internal documents project $14 billion in losses for 2026 and cumulative negative free cash flow of roughly $143 billion between 2024 and 2029. Positive cash flow isn't expected until 2029 or 2030. One analysis estimated OpenAI could run out of cash by mid-2027 without further raises.

The Market Share Problem

"ChatGPT's web traffic share fell from 86.7% in January 2025 to 64.5% in January 2026 - a 22-percentage-point drop, while Google Gemini grew from 5.7% to 21.5%."

The valuation assumes dominance, but the competitive picture tells a different story. OpenAI's LLM rankings position has slipped as competitors close the gap. When AI insiders were recently surveyed, Anthropic topped the list of companies they would invest in ahead of OpenAI. OpenAI came in second on the "companies you'd short" list.

What Happens Next

The round remains open, with additional commitments expected from sovereign wealth funds including Abu Dhabi's MGX and potentially Saudi Arabia's PIF. The total raise could push beyond $110 billion.

The IPO clock is ticking. Amazon's conditional $35 billion creates structural pressure to go public, and OpenAI is reportedly laying groundwork for a U.S. listing valued at up to $1 trillion, with an H2 2026 filing and 2027 listing as internal targets. At the same time, Track 2 of OpenAI's $600 billion compute buildout continues with the Stargate campus in Abilene and international nodes planned for Abu Dhabi, Norway, and the UK.

The largest private funding round in history is now official. The question it raises is the same one we asked four days ago, just louder: can any company spend $14 billion more than it earns in a single year and call it a strategy? OpenAI's answer is that revenue is tripling, users are approaching a billion, and the infrastructure moat being built with this capital will be impossible to reproduce. The investors writing these checks clearly agree. The market will get to decide for itself soon enough.

Sources:

• OpenAI raises $110B in one of the largest private funding rounds in history - TechCrunch
• OpenAI secures blockbuster $110 billion funding round - Sherwood News
• Microsoft and OpenAI joint statement on continuing partnership
• OpenAI's annual recurring revenue tripled to $20 billion in 2025 - PYMNTS
• OpenAI secures record $110 billion funding round - ZeroHedge